^  I  t  r  r 


VllJZATlON 


■IN  CWOGLLEY 


UC-NRLF 


OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

» 

<iAccession 96|>.4.^ Clms 


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in  2007  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/civilizationbyfaOOwoolrich 


divdisation  bp  fattb 


By 

rOHN   G.  WOOIXEY 

\t 

With  portrait  of  the  Author 


COPYRIGHT   1899  BY 


THE  CHURCH  PRESS 
CHICAGO     U.  S.  A. 


■^C! 


^^5; 


^'^^^^■•'P 


irn  (P-a.^^ 


Ai^V^ 


CONTENTS. 


Civilization  bv  Faith 
Young  Men  for  War 
The  Mercies  of  God    - 
*%IKE  A  Tree"    - 
The  Ranqe  Finder 


96642 


9 

34 

64 

87 

109 


TJie  Jive  speeches  here  presented  were  pre- 
pared for  Conventions  of  the  Young  PeopWs 
Christian  Union  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
Church. 

Only  one  of  them — ^'The  Mercies  of  God^' — 
was  ever  repented.  It  is  printed  here  from,  a 
newspaper  report  of  the  Virgini  i  Conference 
of  the  M.  E.  Church,  South. 

None  of  them  has  been  revised,  though 
doubtless  all  of  them  would  be  the  better  for 
it;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  their  purpose  ivould 
not  be  furthered  by  extra  p  lish.  They  have 
made  people  think;  they  may  make  others. 
For  themselves,  they  have  neither  ambition  nor 
hope.  Of  justification  for  their  present  con- 
spiracy, there  is  none  but  this,  that  they  may 
better  serve  and  better  wait. 

Without  a  formal  dedication,  which  would 
be  presumptuous,  I  send  a  blessing  and.  a 
cheer  to  the  Society  tvhich  has  been  the  greatest 
blessing  and,  the  greatest  cheer  to  me. 


Ch/icago,  Jan.  1, 1899. 


dmiisation  bp  f aitb 


"And  at  midnight,  Paul  and  Silas  prayed,  and 
Bang  praises  unto  God;  and  the  prisoners  heard 
them,  and  suddenly  there  was  a  great  earthquake, 
so  that  the  foundations  of  the  prison  were  shaken, 
and  immediately  all  the  doors  were  opened,  and 
every  one's  bands  were  loosed.  And  the  keeper  of 
the  prison  awaking  out  of  his  sleep,  and  seeing  the 
prison  doors  open,  he  drew  out  his  sword  and  would 
have  killed  himself,  supposing  that  the  prisoners 
had  been  fled.  But  Paul  cried  with  a  loud  voice, 
saying,  Do  thyself  no  harm,  for  we  are  all  here. 
Then  he  called  for  a  light,  and  sprang  in  and  came 
trembling,  and  fell  down  before  Paul  and  Silas,  and 
brought  them  out  and  said.  Sirs,  what  must  I  do  to 
be  saved?  And  they  said.  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved.'* 

^T  is  a  strange  story,  abrupt,  inartistic, 
improbable;  the  bones  of  a  story — re- 
ported after  the  manner  of  modem 
stenography,  in  consonants — omitting 
all  vowel  sounds.  But  one  thing  stands 
out  plain  as  a  pikestaff,  which  answers 
my  whole  purpose  with  you  tonight,  and 
that  is,  that  these  two  men,  one  a  great 
preacher  and  the  other  a  yoimg  business 
man,  traveling  with  him,  were  severely 
tried  in  a  variety  of  ways  in  a  brief  time, 
yet    *pulled    together,'    and    were    exactly 


Civilization  by  Faith 
10 

true   to   God,   their  neighbors,   and  them- 
selves. 

They  were  not  show  people;  they  had^ 
even  avoided  Macedonia.,  until  one  of  them 
heard  a,  clear  call  thither,  and  "immedi- 
ately" they  "went  with  a  straight  course.*' 
They  were  no»t  hunting  a  sensation,  they 
made  no  business  for  the  bill-^posters  of 
Philippi,  but  found  a  quiet  prayer-meet- 
ing'  '^out  of  the  city  by  the  riverside,'  and 
"went  and  sat  and  spake  to  the  women  who 
resorted  thither."  But  the  conversion  of 
Lydia  opened  to  them  the  doors  of  good  so- 
ciety, and  'they  entered  as  a  matter  of 
course,  and  began  to  cut  a  figure  In  the 
place.  Then  the  advertising  devil  struck 
them.  It  was  a  crazy  girl — it  would  have 
been  a  Sunday  newspaper  now — and  they 
suppressed  the  whole  edition,  and  so, 
not  oaily  lost  business,  but  also  won  the 
hiaitred  of  the  news-mongers,  who  had  a 
*puir  with  the  magistrates  and  the  ear  of 
the  croiwd.  And  they  were  publicly 
whipped,  and  graduated  from  polite  sioci- 
ety  to  take  a  post-graduate  course  in  jail. 

And  a.t  midnight,  with  thedr  feet  in 
stocks,  and  their  backs  raw  and  bleeding, 
they  prayed  and  sang.  It  was  fanaticism 
pure  and  simple,  and  ridiculous — or  else 
sublime. 


Civilization  by  Faith 

n 
And  the  prisoners  heard  them,  and 
Withered  about  the  duin.geon  grating,  &a«y- 
ing  to  one  another:  "Hello!  prayer-meet- 
ing, dnawing-rooim,  st^reeit  eoTne-r,  court, 
whipping-post,  prison  pen,  Sunday,  week- 
day, mid-day,  midnight — all  are  one  to 
these  Christians;  whatever  foolery  tiheir 
notion  is,  they  stand  by  it."  And  so,  when 
the  sickening  ground-swell  of  an  earth- 
quiake  seit  the  teeth  of  the  Romaii  law  to 
chaittering,  and  the  bolts  shrunk  back 
appalled  into  their  sockets,  and  the  hinges 
dropi^ed  their  jaws,  and  the  doors  gaped, 
and  the  stocks  let  go,  and  the  chains  fell 
off;  these  prisoners,  represeniting  the  pov- 
erty, vice,  idleness,  crime,  and  the  misun- 
derstood  "and  oppressed  inmocence  of  the 
state,  with  one  accord,  fell  in  about  the 
two  men  of  .God  who  sang  in  Jail. 
*  *  * 

It  was  a  great  earthquake.  It  awoke  the 
night  policeman,  and  in  the  new  experi- 
ence of  being  awake  on  duty  he  lost  his 
head,  and  did  sundry  strange  things  for  a 
policeman;  among  other  things,  got  undier 
cionviction  of  sin,  when  he  heard  the  voice 
of  a  fanatic — who  had  tried  to  introduce 
Christianity  into  a  country  where  there 
had  always  been  pagans  and  alw^ays  would 
be,   and  had  wasted  his     influence     and 


Civilization  by  Faith 
J2 

thrown  a  good  thing  away — cry  out,  with 

authority  amd  power:  'Do  thys'elf  no  harm, 

for  we  are  all  here.' — 

*  *  * 

And  when  he  heard  that  voice,  so  clear 
and  strong  and  steady  that  it  put  the  roar 
and  panic  of  the  storm  at  a  discount,  he 
forgot  that  he  was  an  official  and  remem- 
bered that  he  was  a  man,  forgot  to  worry 
about  the  state  of  public  sentiment  and 
began  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  right- 
eousness for  his  own  soul.  And  he  called 
for  a  light  and  sprang  into  the  prison, 
himself  a  prisoner  now  to  a  new  terror 
and  a  new  hope,  to  look  into  the  face  of  a 
man  who  spoke  like  that  at  such  a  time  as 
that. 


And  with  the  weird  and  glaring  flam- 
beau held  aloft,  he  stood  before  them,  and, 
betwix*!  the  midnight  and  the  torchlight, 
siaw  a  gleam  that  never  shone  to  him  be- 
fore, on  land  or  sea;  and  "the  true  light" 
"that"  at  some  time  or  other  "lighteth 
every  man  that  comethinto  the  world,"  was 
blazing  through  his  soul — ^God's  own  radi- 
ant energy,  sihining  from  the  faces  of  two 
truth-obeying,  truth-compelling  men. 
And  he  sank  upon  his  knees,  while  anotheir 
eiarthquake  shock  shook  open  every  door 


Civilization  by  Faith 
13 

that  -shut  him  away  from  liberty,  and 
eried:  "What  must  I  do."  And  they  said: 
**Come,  come,  this  is  no  time  to  talk 
about  that.  You  must  not  try  to  bring  re- 
ligion into  an  earthquake;  wait  till  the 
storm  blows  over!"  No,  they  didn't;  their 
faith  and  truith  were  earthquake-proof, 
a<n.d  they  said  simply,  without  any  cir- 
cumstance, circumlocution,  or  stilts:  *'Be- 
lieve  on  the  Lard  Jesus  Christ,  a-nd  thou 
Shalt  be  saved. " 

*  *  * 

This  is  the  end  of  the  story  and  the 
beginning  of  my  speech — every  speech  of 
mine,  I  reckon.  I  have  said  it  from  one 
end  of  the  land  to  the  other:  to  young 
m-en  in  the  glory  of  their  reckless 
strength;  to  tempted  men  in  the  stress 
and  strain  of  mighty  trial;  to  drunkards 
in  the  deiath-rattle  of  their  manhood;  to 
the  pious  rings  that  work  the  mammon 
of  political  unrighteousness  for  place  and 
p'ofpuliarity  and  power;  to  the  boneless 
ministry  that  sings  small  and  situdies  the 
oontemptible  meteorology  ocf  pew-holders* 
faices  'to  iseie  where  sits  the  wd'nd'  and  prog- 
nostioate  the  time  and  track  of  stormis; 
and  to  our  ovsm  conventions  of  brave  men 
and  women  when  they  have  caught  the 
fever    of    wire-pulling     and     rebelled     at 


Civilization  by  Faith 
14 

truth's  slow  schedule.  I  have  stood  hard 
and  fast  by  this  old  Book,  and  said  neiitheT 
less  nor  more  than  "Believe  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 

But  may  I  halt  the  column  of  my  pur- 
pose here  a  little  w^hile,  to  ask  you  to  ad- 
mire w^ith  me  the  crystalline  intensity  of 
the  man's  motive?  The  light  of  truith 
was  flashing-  upon  him  with  such  tremen- 
dous voltage,  that  the  candle-power  of  his 
mind  was  multiplied  by  some\thing  like 
infinity,  and  his  question  has  facets  like  a 
brilliant,  and  the  words  are  clearest  at 
the  edges,  where  in  ordinary  speech  they 
shade  off  into  a  pleasant  haze  together,  to 
diffuse  and  mollify  or  to  obscure  the 
meaning.  "What  must  I  do?" — Not  "how,'* 
—faith  is  a,  subs'tantive,  ntot  an  adverb;  a 
fact,  not  a  system;   a  thing,  noit  a  mode. 

*  4t  * 

"What  must  I  do?"— Necessity,  not  pol- 
icy— striaaghit  course,  not  shilly-shally — 
not  "a  step  in  the  right  direction" — not  "the 
choice  of  two  evils" — the  ultimate  thing, 
niarrow-gU'a.ge,  single  plank — ^must. 

*  *  * 

"What  must  I  do?"  Not  we,  not  my 
friends — my  manager,  my  party,  my  sio- 
ciety;  I,  the  focal  poinit  of  responsibility. 


Civilization  by  Faith 
15 

"What  must  i  do?" — Not  resolve,  leave 
off,  think,  love,  hope,  sympathize  with,  pay, 
subscribe  to.  Salvation  at  the  eear  end  is 
doing  Bomeithing". 

*  4{-   * 

"What  must  I  do  to  be?"  Infinitive  form 
O'f  the  verb  that  expresses  existence,  *d>o' 
is  for  you,  Ho  be'  is  the  g-if t  of  God. 

<«•  *   4«- 

"W^hat  must  I  do  to  be  saved?'* — not 
elected,  appreciated,  rewarded,  loved,  un- 
derstood, settled  in  a  gfood  pulpit;  saved, 
the  perfect  participle  of  the  divinest  part 
of  speech — uttermost  salvation  by  the 
power  of  God  belted  on  to  me,  by  my  own 
choice,  responsibility  and  duty. 

*  «•  * 

Now,  read  the  wonderful  answer  again. 
"Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou 
Shalt  be  saved."  It  answers  the  "what"  and 
the  "must"  and  the  "I"  and  the  "do"  and 
the  "to  be"  and  the  "saved."  "I?"  Christ.— 
"Nevertheless  not  I  but  Christ  that  work- 
eth  in  me."  "Do?"— Christ.— "Other  founda- 
tion can  no  man  lay  than  is  laid  in  Jesuis 
Christ."  "To  be?"— Christ.— "For  me  to  live 
is  Christ  and  to  die  is  gain."  "Saved?" — 
Christ. — "For  Christ  is  the  end  of  the  law, 
for  righteousness,  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth."    "AnH  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what 


Civilization  by  Faith 

we  sball  be,  but  we  know  that  when  He 
shall  appear  we  shall  be  like  Him,  for  w« 
shall  see  Him  as  He  is." 

4f    #    «f 

And  there  you  have  the  whole  doctrine 
of  personal  jutstification,  not  only,  but  aleo 
the  immensely  grander  conception  which 
is  my  theme  tonight,  and  every  night; 
civilization  by  taith. 

And  I  am  not  afraid  that  you  will 
charge  it  to  the  exuberance  of  my  fan-cy, 
when  I  say  that  the  social  conditions  of 
today  present  a  strikioig,  though  exagger- 
ated, parallel  to  t(his  old  tale  of  Mace^ 
donda. 

*  *  * 

Society  in  all  ages  has  dealt  with  re- 
form and  reformers  too  much  upon  the 
basis  of  the  jail;  and  the  weaker  the  gov- 
ernment the  stronger  the  jail.  If  as  much 
care  had  been  expended,  proportionately 
to  its  educational  im/portance,  upon  the 
law,  to  make  it  clean  and  good,  the  neces- 
sity for  jails,  inste^ad  of  being  on  the  in- 
crease, as  it  is,  would  be  diminishing;  but 
so  far,  in  too  great  a  measure.  Christian 
government  says:  "If  any  man  sin,  he  be- 
longs in  the  lock-up.  The  law  was  wick- 
ed, to  be  sure;  but  away  with  him  out  of 
sight  and  out  of  mind  and  out  of  hope!" 


CivUization  by  Faith 
17 

And  government  has  proceeded  upon 
this  theory,  not  only  with  its  enemies,  but 
al'so  with  its  innocent  dependentis  and  its 
truest  friends.  The  drunkard'is  wife  pite- 
ously  lifts  her  hands  to  the  state  for  help, 
and  it  promptly  sends  a  policeman  to  club 
her  already  breaking  heart  to  a  pulp^  by 
putting  her  husband  on  the  chain  gang, 
and  cries  to  her,  in  her  helpless  anguish; 
"Get  thee  to  a  madhouse,  or  a  brothel,  go, 
go!- 

4f    4f    if 

Eeform  and  reformers  are  familiair 
with  the  whipping-po'sit ;  and  civilization 
has  done  some  of  its  deepest  thinking  in 
a  cell.  On  the  other  hand,  there  has  been 
a  congestion  of  effort  at  the  church  edifice. 
The  great  American  desert  of  Christian 
tesitimony  is  the  region  that  lie>s  between 
the  prison  and  the  prayer-meeting.  The 
church  has  had,  not  too  much,  but  too  ex- 
clusively, to  do  with  secluded  places,  out 
of  town,  sick  beds,  consecration  meet- 
ings, funerals,  and  the  like;  as  in  the  case 
of  Paul  and  Silas,  she  has  co'me  into  the 
national  life  and  *'sat  and  talked  to  the 
women  who  resorted  thither,"  and  the 
more  passive  and  non-combative  elementa 
of  the  social  order.  She  has  made  much 
headway  there,  and  some  among  men,  and 


Civilization  by  Faith 
18 

the  more  positive  and  aiggressive  forces. 
It  has  come  to  be  the  fashioai  for  giovern- 
meintal  bodies  and  party  conventions,  even 
vs^hen  "God  is  not  in  all  their  thoughts,"  to 
invite  her  ministry  to  open  their  session© 
with  prayer.  Courts  vrhich  despise  her, 
cause  witnesses  to  kiss  her  book,  before 
they  swear  to  lies;  the  devil-possessed, 
greedy,  puTchasable  traitors,  whom  we 
call  bosses  in  politics,  own  pews  in  llie 
house  of  God,  and  hold  official  posi/tioms  in 
church  boards;  saloon  keiepers  put  gospel 
temperance  advertisementts  in  their  show- 
windows;  a  weak  and  venal  press,  that 
advertises  bawdy  houses,  and  sells  its  ciol- 
umns  to  the  IiqUor  traffic,  prints  the  Sun- 
day Scthool  leisson,  and  follows  up  the  popu- 
lar ministers  and  says,  like  the  poor  de- 
moniac girl  at  Philippi.  "These  men  are  the 
servants  of  the  Most  High  God,  whilch 
show  us  the  way  of  salvation."  And  they 
dio  this  because  there  is  mioney  in  it  for 
the  owner. 

4t    «    4f- 

But  she  has  rebuked  the  evil  spirit  in 
them  all,  and  put  their  revenues  in  jeop- 
a-Tdy,  and  has  threatened  to  cost  them 
place  and  power;  and  in  the  nuarket-plaee 
of  politics  has  been  stripped  aoid  insulted, 
atnid  scourged,  and  shut  up  in  the  limbo  of 


Civilization  by  Faith 
J9 

party  politics,  witih  bawds  and  tihieves  and 
a^njarchists  a;nd  bloody  men.  And  theire, 
crippled  and  worn,  and  in  the  dark,  and 
fast  in  the  stocks,  she  waits  tod-ay,  and 
prays,  and  sing-s  her  plaintive  songs  to  her 
fellow-priso'ners,  while  the  free  and  the 
powerful  go  on  their  way,  not  hearing'  or 

heeding. 

*fr  <t  * 

But,  meantime,  the  mountainous  in- 
equalities and  injusitices  of  the  social  sys- 
tem have  been  dripping  the  imgredients  of 
an  earthquake  inito  the  caverns  bemeath 
t!he  government;  and  at  this  m'inute  the 
foundations  of  the  state  are  trembling, 
and  in  the  throes  of  political  iniquity,  rock 
like  a  ship  in  a  storm;  party  ^bolts'  unlock 
the  party  doors,  and  the  providence  of  a 
gen'eiral  election,  swings  theim  wide,  and 
every  bond  is  loosed,  and  every  chain  falls 
off,  and  every  mam  is  free  to  wash  his 
bands  of  fratricidal  blood,  or  stain  them 
anew  with  the  bribes  of  the  saloon;  and 
society,  with  pallid  lips,  wakes  up,  aind 
dashes  here  and  th'ere  am'ong  her  tottering 
idols,  demented  to  the  point  of  self-de- 
struction, for  fear  her  prisoners  may  get 

away. 

tf  (f  {f 

But  the  church,  splendidly  calm,  erect, 


Civilization  by  Faith 
20 

unfettered,  standing  in  th'c  midnight  and 
apparenit  ruin  of  the  world,  cries  with  a 
loud  voice:  *'Do  thyself  no  harm  for  we  are 
all  here— *and  what  is  more  serious,  we 
have  to  stay  here  together — you  and  I  and 
these  wretched  ones — and  deal  with  one 
another  on  the  level,  with  no  advant<ages 
but  righteousness,  and  no  weakness  but 
wickedness." 

«£■    K-    M- 

And  the  plain,  political,  providential 
meaning  of  this  remarkable  campaign,  is 
that  our  American  civilization,  flying 
abouit  with  its  torchlights  and  its  lanterns 
and  its  bands  of  music,  is  vaguely  peni- 
tent and  looking  for  truth,  though  afraid 
it  will  find  it,  and  the  stump  is  ringing 
about  "conscience,"  "honor,"  "character," 
amd  crying  to  the  true  men  and  women  of 
the  land:  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved?" 
There  ca-n  be  no  answer  to  tha;t,  save  at  the 
polls;  and  I  dare  stand  here  and  d'efy  the 
overwhelming  avalanche  of  cheap,  proble- 
matic, pinchbeck  piety  that  says,  "Don't 
press  that  now,  we  are  about  to  lose  a  dol- 
lar!"— and  I  do  hereby  defy  and  scorn  and 
despis'e  it.  And  I  say  that  a  Christian 
voter  in  this  crisis  is  careless  of  his  honor, 
an  ignoramus  or  a  poltroon,  who  will  not 
stand  by  the  church  aoid  answer,  by  his 


Civilization  by  Faith 
21 

ballot  on  election  day.  "Believe  on  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 

But  some  one  will  say:  "We  shall  vote 
that,  somie  in  one  party,  and  some  in 
another,  according  to  our  r'esidence,  our 
education,  and  our  conscience."  I  deny 
it.  If  we  are  to  guess  at  ouo:  principles 
and  o*iw  methods — ^which  are  our  princi- 
ples in  action — what  is  the  use  of  the 
church?  An  intelligent  mam  with.  *a  two- 
foot  rule'  in  his  hand,  who  agre<es  with  a 
thief  tha.t  perhaps  thirty-five  inches  make 
a  yard,  is  a  liar.  And  the  Christian  voter 
has  a  two-foot  rule,  the  law  and  the  gos- 
pel, marked  in  plain  figures,  and  he  says 
he  can  read  them. 

«•     ¥r     K- 

The  will  of  God  for  civiliation  is  that 
the  liquor  traffic  ought  to  die  now,  at  the 
hands  of  American  politics.  The  church 
is  my  authority,  listen:  "No  political  par- 
ty hats  a  right  t'o  expect,  nor  ought  it  to 
receive,  (the  vote  of  a  Christian  mam  so 
long  as  it  stands  committed  to  the  license 
policy,  or  refuses  to  put  itself  upon  rec- 
ord in  an  attitude  of  open  hostility  to  the 
saloon,  and  the  time  has  fully  come  when 
Christians  should  unite  their  efforts  re- 
gardless of  previous  affiliations  for  its  sup- 
pression." 


Civilization  by  Faith 
22 

I  am  not  the  author  of  that;  no  "crank" 
wrote  tha.t;  thait  is  no  Hhird-pairty'  non- 
semtSe;  that  is  the  deliberate  and  oft-reit- 
erated judgment  of  your  church,  delivered 
under  all  the  mtost  solemn  .sanotions  of 
its  highest  legislative  IjOdy,  and  written 
down  of  record  in  the  Year  Book,  and 
there  is  no  worthy  man  in  the  communion, 
who  would  wish  to,  or  dare  to,  miove  tha.t 
it  be  expunged  or  materially  modified. 

•5f   ^   * 

But  cannot  a  man  vote  for  McKinley 
or  for  Brya^n  and  still  stand  for  thait?  No; 
no  man,  I  care  not  how  enlthusdastiic  a 
partisan,  will  claim  that  the  plaitform  of 
either  party,  or  the  party  itself  by  any 
siane  construction  of  words  or  signs 
stands  for  that,  in  this  electi'on;  and  he 
who  would  be  true  to  this  church  must 
sltand  for  that,  in  this  election.  For  if 
the  liquK)(r  traffic  ought  to  die  now,  it  is  a 
crime  to  reprieve  it  for  f oiur  years,  or  four 
minutes. 

#  *  * 

"But  public  sentiment  is  not  up  to  it,  and 
tihe  money  question  is  vital  and  ready  for 
settlement!"  I  deny  that.  The  money 
qu'esti'On  is  not  ready  for  settlement;  it 
will  laisit  a  generation  yet.  I  beldeve  in  the 
gold  standard  and  in  the  improvement  of 


Civilization  by  Faith 
23 

our  naitional  banik  sy(S't€in,  but  I  kntow 
well,  that  the  silver  men  in  general  are  as 
honestt  as  they  are  earnest,  aind  that  they 
will  not  give  up  the  eitiruggle,  even  though 
they  fail  tO'  carry  one  elector  for  their 
candidate  this  fall;  and  a  Kepublican  or  a 
Democratic  victory  this  year,  would  sion- 
ply  inaugurate  the  money  fight  and  settle 
nothing,  but  who  should  adminiisiter  the 
spoils  of  politics  the  next  four  yea^rs. 


And  I  deny  that  the  money  question  is 
vital.  This  country  could  live  and  prosper 
under  either  of  the  plasms  proposed,  if  the 
liquor  traffic  were  bloated  ou»t,  comscaemce 
made  the  focal  point  of  politics,  and  the 
dalculations  of  statesmanship  were  to  put 
rman  at  the  centre,  and  no't  money  or  party. 
This  n'a»ti'on  could  and  would  be  honest 
with  its  creditors,  even  though  it  were  to 
h»ave  a>  defective  sitandai-d  of  curremcy; 
but  it  never  can  be  honest  with  its  own 
people,  while  it  tlakes  money  for  protect- 
ing the  saloon;  and  honestj^  as  well  as 
charity,  ought  to  begin  at  home.  And  I 
deny  that  public  sentiment  has  anything 
to  dio  about  it.  What  I  can  do,  defends 
on  public  sentiment;  what  I  stand  for,  i» 
Almighty  God's  affair  witli  me. 


Qvilization  by  Faith 
24 

A  Republican  ballot  in  this  election  is 
a<n  indorsement  of  the  most  overt  and  un- 
mitigated treason  of  boss  rule  that  this 
country  has  ever  known.  In  his  sipeech  to 
the  visiting  delegation  from  Beaver  coun^ 
ty,  Pennsylvaaiia,  on  Sept.  5,  the  Republi- 
can camdidate  committed  himself  without 
refserve  to  the  methods  and  the  record  of 
the  portentous  man  who  hangs  upon  the 
orbit  of  political  corruption,  like  a  moon, 
whose  masis  controls  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
t!he  uncleanest  tides  in  American  politics. 
*  «&  * 

I  read  from  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Demo- 
crat— ^a  Republican  paper — of  Sept.  8: 
*'My  fellow-citizens,  I  do  not  forget  that 
this  delegaition  comes  from  the  home  of 
that  disitinguished  leader  and  unrivaled 
Republican  organizer,  whose  unfaltering 
devotion  to  Republicamsm  has  never  wav- 
ered, and  whose  splenddd  services  to  the 
cause  have  more  than  once  assisted  to 
achieve  the  most  signal  triumphs  in  both 
your  state  and  the  nation.  I  remember 
w^ell  that  when  the  Wilson  tariff  law  went 
from  the  House  to  the  Senate,  and  was  un- 
der discussion,  Senator  Quay  stood  reso- 
lutely for  every  interest  in  his  state,  -and 
prevented  the  destruction  of  her  great  in- 
dustries by  his  famous  speech,  which  was 


Civilization  by  Faith 
25 

the  longes't  ever  delivered  upon  tlie  tariff 
question,  in  the  history  of  the  Republic, 
and  which  has  not  yet  been  concluded. 
When  he  was  fighting  for  the  industries  of 
your  state,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  if  he 
could  not  save  them  in  any  other  way,  he 
resumed  his  speech,  which  went  on  day 
afiter  day,  without  apparent  diminuti^on  of 
his  manuscript,  which  was  laid  before 
him.  I  wish  he  might  have  been  a  part  of 
this  great  delegation  today,  but  his  ab- 
sence is  compensated  by  the  fact  that  an 
a.niother  part  of  this  great  tield  of  con- 
test he  is  serving  the  siame  cause  in  which 
you  are  engaged,  and  for  the  success  of 
which  so  many  of  the  people  are  striving." 

»t    if    N- 

A  Republican  ballot,  in  this  election, 
means  a  high  protective  tariff,  a  single 
gold  standard;  and  an  extenision  of  the 
partnership  of  the  government  with  the 
liquor  traffic  indefinitely.  Young  Chris- 
tian voter,  is  that  your  message  to  your 
country?  is  that  the  size  of  your  apostle- 
ship? 

4f    4f    H- 

A  Democratic  ballot  means  lower  tariff; 
a  silver  standard;  and  unchecked  saloons. 
Our  gold  friends  say  that  Bryanism  is 
repudiation,  and  so  it  is;  but  that  is  only 


Civilization  by  Faith 
26 

half  the  truth,  for  Bryaniism  and  McKjn- 
leyiam  are,  both  and  etach,  repudiation  of 
the  LoTd  Jesus,  for  this  electiooi,  accord- 
ing to  the  measure  of  your  church. 

How  many  of  you  believe  it  is  the  will 
of  God  that  the  beverage  liquor  traffic  be 
abolished  now?  Please  to  stand  up,  those 
of  you  who  do  believe  that. 

How  many  of  you  believe  that  the  pro- 
hibition of  the  liquor  traffic  ought  to  be 
the  foremo'St  issue  in  politics  this  year? 
Please  sitand  again,  if  you  do  believe  that! 

How  many  of  you  believe  that  the  Re- 
publican and  Democratic  parties — both  or 
either — are  the  cause  of  the  question  of 
Prohibition  being  kept  back  from  submis- 
sion to  the  people?  Answer  that,  also,  by 
rising,  if  you  please! 

4f   4f   «■ 

You  have  answered  unanimously  and 
truly.  Out  of  your  own  mouths  then  I 
have  proven:  first,  that  it  is  the  will  of 
God  that  the  beverage  liquor  traffic  be 
abolished  now;  second,  that  the  prohibi- 
tion of  the  liquor  traffic  ought  to  be  the 
foremost  issue  in  politics  this  year,  and 
third,  that  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
parties,  both  or  either,  are  the  cause  of  the 
question   of   prohibition   being  kept   back 


«  Civilization  by  Faitk 

27 

from  submission  to  the  people.  Well,  tben, 
listen.  I  submit  it  to  your  plainest  com- 
mon-sense tbait  any  man  of  you  who  votes 
for  either  of  those  parties  at  the  next  elec- 
tion will  be  lukewarm  in  his  paitriotism, 
false  to  himself,  and  recreant  to  his  Lord. 
*  *  * 

Believing  on  Jesus  Christ  is  no  transac- 
tion of  an  instant.  When  one  holds  up  hia 
hand,  and  says  1  do  believe,  that  does  not 
close  that  incident.  Believing  is  a  trinity. 
Jesus  illustrated  it  when  He  said:  *'He  that 
cometh  unto  Me  and  heareth  My  words  and 
doeth  them;  I  will  show  you  to  whom  he  is 
like;  he  is  like  a  mian  which  built  a  house 
and  diigged  deep,  and  I'aid  the  foundation 
on  a  rock.  *'Come;"  "hear;"  "do;'*  decide; 
dig;  do  business.  For  eighteen  hundred 
j^ears  the  church  ha's  worked  for  comers, 
for  the  last  fifty  she  has  agonized  for  hear' 
ers,  but  today  the  whole  eairth  cries, out 
for  Christian  doei^s  and  one  of  the  sure 
corollaries  of  believing  is:  Remember  elec- 
tion day  to  keep  it  holy.  One  who  says  he 
believes  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  re- 
linquishes that  faith  upon  elec^tion  day,  at 
the  command  of  a  boss  or  in  the  interest 
of  a  parity,  is  either  false  in  his  profession 
OT  feeble  in  his  courage;  at  any  rate  it  is 
not  true-that  he  believes,  that  day.    A  man 


Civilization  by  Faith 

28  ^ 

who  says:  "I  believe  I  can  swim,"  but  keeps 
his  toe  O'H  the  bottom,  is  an  amphibioius 
fraud,  that  swims  on  the  land  and  walks  in 
the  water. 

4f    »    4f 

But,  you  say:  "It  is  certainly  the  will  of 
God  ithat  I  should  be  practical  as  well  as 
true,  and  the  rules  of  conduct  that  apply  to 
the  narrow  spheres  of  personal  righteous- 
ness are  too  small  and  'too  rigid  for  use  in 
the  wide  domain  of  politics."  That  is  the 
OT-iginal  suggestion  of  the  slimy,  undulatt- 
ing  politician  of  the  story  of  Genesis:  "Ye 
shall  not  surely  die,  for  God  doth  know 
that  in  the  day  you  go  in  for  the  manuflac- 
ture  of  3^our  own  knowleage,  then  your 
eye«  -shall  be  opened,  and  ye  shall  be  afi 
god's,  kn'owing  good  and  evil,  on  your  owm 

hook." 

«t  «t  «{• 

Be  ntot  deceived,  O  my  young  friends! 
Bgn't  tooich  that  reasoning!  Don't  have 
to  be  ashamed  to  meet  God  when  He  walks 
in  the  garden  of  the  world  in  the  evening 
of  election  day!  There  is  no  way  to  main- 
tain a  parity  between  divine  truth  and 
political  crookedness,  at  any  ratio.  A 
soul  that  has  a  vision  of  God's  truth  and 
then  coquets  vdth  an  opposing  public  sen- 
timent,   courts    damnation.    The    gist;    of 


UN)VcK3rTY 


Civilization  by  Faith 
29 

redemptive  power  is  that  you  be  made 
whole.  Your  self  are  the  cosmos.  Every 
heart-beat  of  yours  thr'obs  health  or  sick- 
ness to  the  ends  of  the  world.  Every  vein 
of  yours  brings  back  the  blue  debris  from 
the  ou'termo'S't  verge  of  life,  to  be  reddened 
and  warmed  in  your  bosom.  Every  nerve 
of  yours  compels  the  body  of  the  universe . 
for  good  or  ill.  The  whole  art  and  sci- 
ence of  Christian  citizenship  lies  in  the 
question:  "Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me 
to  do?"  and  when  you  ask  it,  you  must  shut 
your  ears  to  public  sentiment.  The  clear- 
est minds  of  earth  have  said  it. 

Ask  William  Shakespeare,  whtat  about 
public  sentiment?  "This,  above  all,  to 
thine  own  self  be  true,  and  it  must  follow, 
as  the  night  the  day,  thou  canst  not  then 
be  false  to  any  man." 

Balzac,  what  about  public  sentiment? 
"To  live  in  the  presence  of  great  truths  and 
eternal  laws,  and  be  led  by  permanent 
ideals,  that  is  what  keeps  a  man  patient 
when  the  world  ignores  him,  and  calm  and 
unspoiled  when  the  world  praises  him." 
Abraham  Lincoln,  what  about  public  sen- 
timent? "If  ever  I  feel  the  soul  within 
me  elevate  and  expand  to  those  dimensitms 
not  wh'olly  unworthy  of  its  almighty  arch- 
itec't,  it  is  when  I  contemplate  the  cause  of 


Civilization  by  Faith 
30 

my  country,  deserted  by  all  the  world  be- 
side, and  I,  standing  uip,  boldly  and  alone, 
and  hurling  delia-nce  at  her  victorious  op- 
pressors. Here,  without  contemplating 
consequences,  before  high  heaven,  and  in 
the  face  of  the  vv^orld,  I  swear  eternal  fidel- 
ity to  the  just  cause,  as  I  deem  it,  o»f  the 
land  of  my  life,  my  liberty,  and  my  love." 

Solomon,  what  about  public  sentiment? 
"Know  thyself."  Paul,  what  about  public 
sentiment?  "Keep  thyself  pure."  Job, 
what  about  public  sentiment?  "The  right- 
eous shall  hold  on  his  way,  and  he  that 
hath  clean  hands  shall  grow  stronger  and 
stronger."  Jesus,  what  about  public  sen- 
timent?   "What  is  that  to  thee,  follow  thou 

Me." 

*  *  * 

But  when  shall  we  "get  there?"  I  don't 
know;  but,  if  you  mean  to  be  a  Christian, 
you  would  better  never  get  anywhere, 
than  to  ride  on  a  scalper's  ticket  to  a  place 
where  you  don't  want  to  go.  Let  us  hold 
our  value  high,  as  friends  of  God!  The 
two  old  parties  are  the  two  places  for 
cents  in  the  world's  ledger;  a  sound  Chris- 
tian voter  belongs  in  the  dollar  column. 

*  ^  * 

In  pugilism,  first  blood  is  prized,  but 
even  in  the  philosophy  of  the  prize  ring, 


Civilization  by  Faith 
31 

blows  over  the  heart,  although  they  show 
mo  immediate  effects  at  all,  yet  sicken  the 
boxer  slowly  but  surely,  so  that  finally  he 
goes  down  before  a  mere  tap  by  the  cum- 
ulative force  of  heart  blows.  We  have 
been  trying  to  conquer  the  world  by 
sparring  to  draw  first  blood  from  the  niose 
of  a  party;  let  us  stop  that,  and  all  hands 
pound  the  voting  church,  which  is  the 
heart  of  civiliza'tion,  and  though  it  may 
take  longer,  the  victory  will  be  sure  and 
final. 

»  *  » 

But,  in  the  meantime,  how  shall  we 
fare?  Shall  we  get  offices?  No.  8ha.ll 
men  speak  well  of  us?  No.  Shall  we  be 
able  to  pose  as  sweet  and  lovely  leaders  of 
popular  movements?  No.  Shall  we  get 
mionuments  to  our  memory?  No.  But 
remember  we  are  Christiians. 

I  began  with  a  story  about  the  greiat 
apostle,  let  me  close  with  his  own  words: 
"Only  let  your  conversation  be  as  it  be- 
cometh  the  gospel  of  Christ,  that  whether 
I  come  and  see  you,  or  else  be  absent,  I 
may  hear  of  your  affairs,  tha-t  ye  shall 
stand  fas>t  in  one  spirit,  with  one  mind, 
striving  together  for  the  faith  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  in  nothing  terrified  by  your  ad- 
versaries,  which  is   to  t^hem   an   evident 


Civilization  by  Faith 
32 

token  o(f  perdition,  but  to  you  of  salvaftion, 
and  that  of  God,  for  unto  you  it  is  given  in 
the  behalf  of  Christ  n'o't  only  to  believe  on 
him  but  also  to  suffer  for  his  sake." 

*  *  * 

In  imagination,  I  go  back  to  that  other 
R'oonan  jail  and  see  the  old  hero,  bent  and 
vs^e'ather-be.aten,  leaning  against  the  Ma^ 
mertine  rocks,  and  w^ith  quick,  difficult 
breathing,  waiting  for  the  voice  which 
once  before  ravished  his  soul  and  made  him 
a  bond  -slave  forever;  and  as  he  waits  there 
I  see  a  slippery  old  trilobite  Pharisee,  one- 
third  Roman,  one-third  Jew,  one-third 
Christian,  long-praying,  Joud-resolvin(g, 
anything-to-win,  approach  and  say,  "Well, 
Paul,  how  is  it?  What  did  you  get  out  of 
it?"  And  I  see  the  old  man  redden  at  the 
insult  and  spring  to  his  feet,  straight  as  a 
Lebanon  cedar  for  the  moment,  and  fling- 
ing back  his  scan't  gray  hair,  and  lifting  up 
his  voice  like  a  trumpet,  say:  "What  did  I 
get  out  of  it?  I  have  fought  a  good  fight. 
I  have  finished  the  course.  I  have  kept  the 
fai'th.  Henceforth,  theire  is  laid  up  for  me 
a  crown  of  life,  whdoh  the  Lord  the  righte- 
ous Judge  shall  give  me  at  that  day." 

*  *  * 

Young  man,  take  your  bearings  tonight, 
right    your    compass,    lay    your    course. 


Civilization  by  Faith 
33 

stand  up  before  God  in  your  soul,  and  say 
which  shall  your  le'ader  be,  Quay,  the  win- 
ner of  elections,  or  Paml,  the  loser  of  all, 
that  he  might  win  Christ-  For  my  own 
part,  I  declare  to  you  that  on  the  third  of 
next  November,  up  to  the  full  illumlnait- 
intg  power  of  my  conscience,  I  shall  sta-nd 
by  the  church,  and  no  mat«ter  what  the  lay 
of  patrtdes,  the  choice  of  candidates,  or  the 
chances  of  present  vict'ory,  my  ballot  shall 
speak  to  my  country  just  one  word,  "Be- 
lieve on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou 
Shalt  be  saved. ' 


foung  flfien  for  (Bar 


'*  Nevertheless  the  foundation  of  God  standeth  sure, 
having  this  seal,  The  I^ord  knoweth  them  that  are 
His.  And,  I^et  every  one  that  nameth  the  name  of 
Christ  depart  from  iniquity. 

EMONG    all    the    voices    which  have 
come  to  me  in  the  toil  and  stress 
of  the  Great    Reform,    there    has 
been  none  of  truer  ring  or  clearer 
resonance  than  that  of  the  United  Presby- 
terian Church. 

*  *  * 

And,  without  a  word  of  flattery,  I  may 
tell  you  that  the  carefullest  considera- 
tion of  the  forces,  among  ourselves,  which 
make  for  righteousness  gives  me  the  im- 
pression that  the  "crack  regiment"  of  the 
line — the  personal  troops,  so  to  speak,  of 
the  Commander  whose  we  are  and  whom 
we  serve — is  the  Young  People's  Christian 
Union. 

4f  «  » 

I  have  no  idea  that  your  motive  is  high- 
er or  your  spirit  finer  than  those  of  your 
sister  socie/ties,  but  you  suggest  to  me  a 
robuster  fiber. 

«f  »  w 

It  can  do  no  harm  to  tell  you  this,  for 
even  if  it  be   not   true,   the   involuntary 


Young  Men  for  War 
35 

over-estimate  may  pique  some  of  you  to  try 
to  make  it  true.- 

It  may  be  but  a  prejudice  of  mine,  born 
of  a  great  personal  aifecition  foi>  some  of 
your  numbtr,  or  it  may  be  only  that  I  have 
caught  in  some  degree  the  popular  opinion 
of  3^our  old  "rock-ribbed  and  unemotional 
theology/'  and  with  it  a  sense  of  the  grim, 
gray  immutability  of  Scotch  granite 
mountains;  or  that  your  stately  psalmody, 
in  contrasit  v^^ith  the  rollicking  ditties 
which  so  often  offend  good  taste  and  good 
s^nse,  has  put  the  roar  of  Lebanon  into 
my  soul  and  confused  my  judgment;  but 
there  seems  abundant  reason  why  I  may 
count  myself  not  to  have  misapprehended. 

*  *  * 

In  the  first  place,  your  church,  though 
o]d,  is  small,  and  for  that  you  are  probab- 
ly entitled  to  no  praise.  You  would  have 
had  it  the  biggest  if  you  could.  But  it  is 
well  set-tied  in  church  history,  as  in  for- 
estry, that  slow  growth  implies  carefuller 
aliment,  completer  digestion,  and  harder 
grain  than  very  rapid  increase  canadmitof. 

*  *  * 

In  the  second  place,  I  understand  that 
Ihis  society  belongs  to  the  members  vfho 
belong  to  it.  I  am  informed  that  it  would 
be  in  order,  at  any  parliamentary  oppor- 


Young  Men  for  War 
36 

tnnity  in  these  proceedings,  for  any  one  of 
you  to  presemt  any  motion  he  might  feel 
led  to,  and  its  reception  would  depend 
upon  the  tact  of  the  chairman  and  the 
good  sense  of  the  convention.  That  is 
democratic;  that  Is  strong;  that  is  right. 

*  *  * 

I  saw  recently  a  "bull"  that  had  been 
isJTued  to  'the  constituency  of  a  convention 
far  more  splendid  in  dimensions  and  in 
feme  than  this  of  yours,  in  which  it  was 
ordered,  adjudged,  and  decreed,  that, 
while  the  proceedings  should  be  In  the 
form  of  an  "open  parliament,"  yet  no  res- 
o]ution  would  be  entertained  which  would 
connect  any  individual  to  anything.  That 
is  undemocratic;  that  is  weak;  that  is 
wrong. 

*  *  * 

It  is  the  A  B  C  of  logic  that  such  conven- 
tions are  foredoomed  to  "miss  connection" 
and  to  fail  of  the  highest  good.  There  is 
paresis  in  the  advertisement  and  impu- 
dent ring-archy  that  is  afraid  of  something 
and  dare  not  trust  the  rank  and  file. 

Liberty,  with  a  ball  and  chain,  is  slavery, 
and — whatever  the  motive — a  "cut-and- 
dried"  mass-meeting  is  a  cripple,  if  not  a 
sham,  from  invocation  to  doxology,  though 
angels  make  the  program. 


Young  Men  for  War 
37 

In  the  third  place,  your  church  has,  to 
an  unusual  degree,  held  her  young  men  in 
loyalty  and  activity.  This  fact  alone 
seems  sufficient  to  sustain  my  judgment 
and  to  set  the  seal  of  power  upon  you. 

A  weak  church  or  society  cannot  hold 
young  men  of  high  quality.  "The  world'* 
bids  high  for  "good  stuff,"  and  inevitably 
draws  away  the  manhood  of  any  organiza- 
tion which  by  slovenly  testimony,  timidity, 
or  machinery  puts  a  premium  upon  "cold 
blood"  and  small  calibre.  And  probably 
tlie  gloomiest  fact  in  church  life  today  is 
that  young  men,  as  a  rule,  will  have  none 
of  it. 

The  bicycle  rolls  away  with  the  boys  on 
Sunday,  because  there  is  a  sense  of  power 
in  it — and  liberty;  for  the  rider  pedals  with 
his  own  feet,  at  his  own  will,  and  himself 
holds  the  handle-bars.  Let  a  board  of 
trustees  go  with  each  wheel,  and  the  bi- 
cycle trade  would  be  as  discouragin'g  as 
tlie  church! 

And  so,  since  no  conditions  have  been 
put  upon  me,  and  since  (the  loyalty  of 
Christian  women  is  beyond  praise  or 
blame,  comparatively,  and  since  the  crying 
need  of  the  church  is  virility,  I  speak  "to 
you  young  men,  because  you  are  strong." 


Young  Men  for  War 
38 

I  remember  when  it  was  anmounced  that 
Edison  had  invented  the  incandescent 
lamp  that  it  Wias  said  he  had  sent  aigents 
into  all  the  earth  to  search  for  a  certain 
metal  which  was  known  to  be  precisely- 
suited  to  the  contrivance,  but  which  as 
yet  had  not  been  found  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity. I  come  in  the  name  and  in  the  inter- 
est of  "the  light  of  the  world"  prospeot- 
ing  for  strong  men  for  incandescent  Chris- 
tian citizenship,  sans  boss,  sans  trustees, 
sans  policy,  sans  pledge,  sans  party,  sans 
anything,  but  liberty  in  Jesus  Christ. 
*  ^-  * 

"Thou  Shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  "svith 
all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  mind  and 
with  all  thy  strength."  The  heart  of  the 
church  is  well  nigh  sick  of  preaching.  The 
mind  of  the  church  is  all  but  crazed  by 
learning.  But  the  strength  of  the  church 
has  scarcely  heard  of  the  gospel.  Strength 
the  third  member  of  the  trinity  of  wor- 
ship, I  would  hold  up  before  you. 

"Th€  glory  of  young  men  is  their 
R^trength."  I  preach  to  that.  I  come  to 
call  you  to  the  field  of  glory.  Not  to  some 
merry  jousting  of  adventurous  gentlemen, 
:n  knightly  lis«ts  laid  out  between  long  lin-es 
of  silk  pavilions  carpeted  with  cloth  of 
gold,  whence  passionate  and  regal  beauty, 


Young  Men  for  War 
39 

watching  the  games,  flashes  an  amorouf 
frenzy  into  the  sinews  of  the  gallants  and 
accents  every  blow  and  every  parry  with 
applause;  where  ribbons,  gems,  and  gold 
await  the  champions,  and  those  who  fall 
are  borne  by  faithful  squires  from  the  field, 
to  perfumed  couches,  where  soft  love  and 
languorous  music  soothe  the  fretted  nerves 
and  sweet  sleep  sucks  from  their  wounds 
tne  venom  of  despair. 

*  *  * 

NoJ  no!  This  is  the  year  of  our  Lord^ — 
that  is  to  say,  the  year  of  Godlike  manli- 
ness— eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-seven. 
Here,  is  our  Holy  Land,  and  the  ambling 
chivalry  of  those  old  days  has  never  even 
landed  on  these  shores.  American  nobility 
refuses  to  answer  to  a  horse  derivative, 
but  calls  itself  manhood,  and  walks  the 
earth  in  majesty  and  beauty,  with  the 
simple  justice  of  human  right,  thrice 
armed  to  fight  the  paynim  forces  of  this 

age. 

*  *  * 

And  some  of  us  call  our  manhood  Chris- 
tianity, and  say  we  sit  four  times  a  year, 
or  more,  at  .the  Round  Table  of  the  King 
of  Glory: 

That  He,  Himself,  has  spoken  to  us,  and 
washed  us  in  His  own  blood,  and  cleansed 


Young  Men  for  War 
40 

US  every  whit,  and  given  us  a  new  name 
and  a  new  armor,  and  "the  sword  of  the 
spirit,"  and  shown  us  "a  new  way,"  and 
put  "a  new  song  in  our  mouth,"  and  laid 
upon  our  shoulders  the  accolade  of  His 
own  transcendant  knighthood,  and  raised 
us;  to  the  peerage  of  "kings  and  priests  un- 
to God,"  and  bidden  us  rise  to  a  new  life, 
and  up  to  the  fullness  of  the  measure  of 
the  stature  of  His  own  perfection. 

*  *  * 

Not  for  possession  of  His  holy  sepulchre, 
but  for  the  honor  of  the  knighthood  of  the 
living,  reigning,  conquering  Christ,  I  come 
from  the  front  of  the  hardest  battle-field 
that  cruelty  ever  camped  upon,  to  call  you 
to  the  merciless  rough-and-tumble  of  red- 
hot  war,  against  the  ruler  of  the  darkness 
of  this  world  and  the  betrayers  of  your 

own  land. 

*  *  * 

I  would  not  have  you  to  enlist  "as  the 
horse  rusheth  into  the  battle."  Strength 
is  the  theme,  and  strength  is  thought, 
first  of  all.  Stand  still;  study  the  field; 
count  the  cost.  The  clear-headed  are  the 
strong. 

*  *  * 

You  would  fight,  I  should  trust  you  for 
that,   without    a   question.     But   whether 


Young  Men  for  War 
41 

you  have  courage  to  face  the  facts  in  this 
issue,  I  am  not  so  sure.  Blows  and  bayon- 
ets and  shells  and  flames  and  mines  can 
invent  no  terror  such  as  "sicklies  o'er"  the 
face  of  a  hateful  preliminary  fact.  I 
should  rather  fight  a  thousand  devils  single 
handed  than  simply  to  face  my  ow^n  s<on  in 
a  disgraceful  company;  and  this  fight  is 
far  less  difficult  to  w^in,  when  we  get  into 
it,  than  it  is  to  look  at,  in  the  morale  of 
its  battle-front. 

It  is  a  hard  gospel  that  I  preach  today; 
antiphlogistic  to  the  freezing  point;  for  I 
would  check  at  the  outset  the  effusive 
quixotry  that  rushes  headlong  into  a 
fight — and  then  collapses  like  a  rag  at  see- 
ing who  is  with  the  enemy;  and  it  is  that 
^'hich  makes  this  battle  terrible. 

There  must  be  no  more  see-sawing  in 
this  business.  There  must  be  no  more 
muddy-headed  dependence  upon  some 
heavenly  "streak  of  luck"  to  win  this  vic- 
tory. Into  the  heart  of  "the  allied  pow- 
ers" of  the  saloon  must  the  church's  iron 

go. 

»  *  * 

A  friendly  critic  wrote  me  recently, 
complaining  of  what  he  called  a  certain 
undertone  of  discouragement  in  my  voice 
these  days.    And  if  you  discover  it  aigain 


Young  Men  for  War 
42 

today  you  must  bear  with  me  and  under- 
stand from  first  to  last  that  I  hate  the  sa- 
loon and  the  saloon  law  and  the  saloon 
newspaper  and  the  saloon  party.  I  have  a 
right  to,  and  I  were  less  a  man  to  haite 
them  less. 

Pain  I  confess  to,  that  is  inevitable  to 
flesh  and  blood  in  such  an  occupation  as  I 
follow;  but  I  am  not  discouraged  nor  dis- 
courageable. 

*  ^e-  * 

"  For  tho'  the  fig  tree  shall  not  blossom, 
Neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  \4nes  ; 
The  labor  of  the  olive  shall  fiail, 
And  the  field  shall  yield  no  meat ; 
The  flock  shall  be  cut  from  off  the  fold, 
And  there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stalls ; 
Yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  I^ord, 
I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation." 

*  *    ¥r 

My  life  has  not  been  easy.  You  know 
something  about  it.  In  the  choke-d(a.mp  of 
a  "horror  of  great  darkness**  I  thoug^ht  a 
voice  from  heaven  said  to  me:  "Believe  x>n 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shialt  be 
saved."  I  did  it,  the  best  I  could,  and  for 
nearly  ten  years  have  kept  the  faith  and 
told  the  truth.  But  even  yet  it  happens, 
after  wearing,  homesick  days,  that  the 
sweet  night  seems  thick  with  treachery, 
and  again  and  again  I  start  from  troubled 


Young  Men  for  War 
43 

sleep,  tasting  alcohol  as  plainly  as  ever  in 
the  old,  »ad  days;  and  with  the  old  pan- 
ther-leap of  alcohol  in  my  brain  and  its 
old  blasphemy  upon  my  lips.  But  I  am  no*! 
discouragfed. 

Ard  sometimes,  when  my  own  rest  waa 
free  from  any  tinge  of  sham-e  or  s-orroiw,  I 
have  heard  my  wife  cry  out  in  the  night. 
4nd  then,  to  my  questiondng,  she  has  re- 
plied: "It  was  only  a  dream;  I  thought  I 
smelled  'the  drink'  again."  So,  even  in  our 
sleep,  the  whip-lash  of  the  sialoon  "laya 
upon"  me  and  mine. 

But  I  am  not  discouraged, 
lie  *  * 

I  thought  the  voice  called  me  to  give  my 
life  to  drunkards. 

It  cost  all  of  what  the  world  calls  "prosr 
peets;"  but  I  paid  it,  and  filled  my  home 
with  ruined  men;  and  after  spite  and  hate 
and  parvenu  meanness  had  conspired  to 
defeat  me,  and  succeeded,  and  I  had  paid 
the  dear  tuition  of  another  term  of  ex- 
perience, there  was  just  one  man  remain- 
jng  true,  of  the  many  whom  I  had  lived  for 
and  nearly  died  for;  but  that  one  was  so 
true  and  his  mother  was  singing  such 
paeans  of  victory  that  I  warmed  my  shiv- 
ering heart  by  their  joy,  and  said:  "After 
all,  it  paid." 


Young  Men  for  War 
44 

But  just  before  the  last  election  there 
came  to  me  from  that  mother's  broken 
heart  a  wail,  in  pen  and  ink,  that  must 
have  m^ade  the  leathern  mail-pouch  ache  to 
carry  it.  And  the  letter  said:  "He  is  fall- 
en! He  is  gone!  He  is  lost!  My  boy! 
My  boy!    Whai  shall  I  do?" 

i^   *   * 

What  could  I  write?  I  waited  until  the 
votes  were  counted,  and  they  said:  "Tell 
the  importunate  widow  to  curse  God  and 
die;  her  child,  her  church,  her  country,  so 
say  they  all  of  them." 

But  I  am  not  discouraged. 

*  *  •» 

I  thought  the  voice  bade  me  put  my  sore 
heart  at  the  service  of  the  Prohibition 
Party,  not  for  the  party's  siake,  but  for  the 
sake  of  decency,  honor,  conscience.  I  d5d, 
and  was  stoned  like  a  tranup  dog  from 
1  own  to  town.    But  I  am  not  discouraged. 

*  *  * 

And  then  I  came  to  the  Church.  In  every 
corner  of  the  country  her  doors  were 
slammed  in  my  face;  but  she  did  not  shut 
them;  I  knew  by  instinct  that  her  heart 
was  sound  and  very  warm  to  such  as  I. 

I  knew  little,  and  cared  less,  about  "the 
dogmta."  My  Quaker  stock  forbade,  per- 
haps.   But  by  "tlie  true  light  which  light- 


Young  Men  for  War 
45 

eth  every  man  that  eometh  into  the 
world,"  I  read  her  mind,  and  took  her  vows 
upon  me,  and  became  her  man,  and  have 
remained  her  man  until  today. 

*  *  * 

I  stood   at   the   polls  in   "eighty-eight" 
and    "ninety-two"    and    "ninety-six,"    and 
saw  her  men  ignore  her  voice  and  ridicule 
her  honor.     But  I  am  not  discouraged. 
<«•  *  * 

I  saw  her  Bible  lying  idle  in  accumulat- 
ing dust  while  the  party  newspaper,  silent 
about  the  liquor  traffic,  opulent  in  ignor- 
ance and  niggardly  of  truth,  had  the  right 
of  way  in  Christian  homes.  But  I  am  not 
discouraged. 

*  *  * 

I  saw  that  certain  of  the  great  metro- 
politan journals  were  in  the  hands  of  Chris- 
tian men  and  called  themselves  "inde- 
pendent." But  the  best  word  they  had  to 
offer  upon  the  greatest  subject  of  this 
age  was  the  dastard  philosophy  that  the 
saloon  ought  to  be  abolished  but  could 
not  be.     But  I  am  not  discouraged. 

They  had  no  word  but  praise  for  the 
flabby  governor  of  Kansas,  who,  standing 
as  the  tribune  of  that  great  people,  backed 
by  the  church,  and  by  the  Word  of  God, 
and  with   a   penal   statute   fitted   to   his 


Young  Men  for  War 
46 

hand,  at  the  crucial  moment  tilted  like  a 
miserable  snipe,  and  piped  small,  to  please 
a  tried  and  convicted  traitor  to  the  Com- 
monwealth.   But  I  am  not  discouraged. 

*  ■»  * 

They  cheered  the  cheaj:)  disciple  at  Des 
Moines,  who,  in  the  greatest  moment  of 
his  official  life,  gave  the  lie  to  an  honor- 
able record,  spat  in  the  face  of  his  church, 
and  with  a  hand  that  he  said  had  been  bur- 
ied with  his  Lord  in  baptism,  signed  his 
name  to  the  contemptible  bill  of  sale  that 
gave  up  the  homes  that  were  under  his 
protection  to  the  pillage  of  the  ealoon. 
But  I  am  not  discouraged. 

*  -x-  * 

They  said  that  Prohibition  had  been 
honestly  tried  in  that  state,  and  that  was 
a  lie,  and  thej^  knew  it.  But  I  am  not  dis- 
couraged. 

*  *  * 

I  saw  that  the  nerve-destroying  forage 
which  is  fed  by  bales  to  the  youth  of  Chris- 
tian homes — the  religious  press — was  as 
cowardly  and  false  as  the  "secular."  The 
highest  thing  it  taught  about  the  saloon, 
beyond  the  staple,  popular  abhorence  of 
the  thing  itself,  was  that  the  Christian 
vcter  ought  to  be  as  true  to  his  church  as 
he  guessed  that  the  state  of  public  senti- 


Young  Men  for  War 
47 

ment — that  is  to  say,  the  party  interest- 
would  warrant.  But  while  I  charge  the 
press  to  be  unfair,  cowardly,  weak,  inade- 
quate in  this  matter,  I  want  to  inject  into 
these  lamentations  a  gloria  for  the  news- 
papers, religious  and  secular,  rare  but  in- 
creasing, which  illustrate  and  ennoble 
Christian  journalism,  teaching  truth  and 
strength — truckling    to    nothing.     BUT    I 

a:m  not  discoueaged. 

*  *  * 

For  in  the  midst  of  hissing  ministers  and 
venal  editors  and  dirt-eating  officials,  in 
the  scud  and  fog  and  eclipse  of  faith-de- 
stroying ecclesiasticism,  when  "I  saw  the 
prosperity  of  the  wicked"  and  "was  envious 
at  the  foolish*'  and  "my  feet  were  almost 
gone,"  I  heard  fhe  flag  of  the  church  of 
Jesus  Christ  sitraining  at  its  halyards  and 
flapping  in  the  swirl  of  on-coming  revolu- 
tions; and  I  looked  up,  and,  by  the  inter- 
rujJted  flashes  of  straight  truth — forked 
and  zigzagged  by  heaven-hiding  banks  of 
doubt  and  fear — spelled  out  the  blood-red 
letters  on  its  field  of  snow:  "The  liqu/or 
traffic  can  never  be  licensed  without  sin, 
and  no  political  party  has  a  right  to  ex- 
pect nor  ought  ft  to  receive  the  vote  of  a 
Christian  man  so  long  as  it  stands  com- 
mitted to  the  license  policy  or  refuses  to 


Young  Men  for  War 
48 

put  itself  upon  record  in  an  attitude  of 
open  hostility  to  the  saloon;"  and  1 
crawled  up  out  of  the  wrack  of  daily  ship- 
wreck, and  my  feet  took  hold  upon  the 
strength  of  the  hills,  and  i  stood  straight 
and  said,  as  I  say  now,  that  though  every 
other  man  cry  craven  at  the  polls,  I  will 
defend  her  name  until  her  colors  dip  to  the 
saloon. 

Standing  beneath  that  flag,  I  plead  with 
you,  not  that  you  will  be  loyal  or  moral  or 
liberal — you  intend  to  be,  you  will  be. 
But  I  beg  of  you  to  be  strong.  For  I  call 
you  to  a  service  where  each  success  will 
Icok  like  a  new  kind  of  failure,  where  there 
will  be  rarely  a  cheer  but  such  as  come 
from  the  blue  lips  of  helpless  agony,  and 
where  the  brightest  thing  in  sight,  for 
years  to  come,  may  be  the  tears  that  glis- 
ten on  the  haggard  cheeks  of  drunkards* 
wives  and  mothers;  and  the  most  inspir- 
ing music  you  shall  hear  will  be  the  wails 
of  little  children  crying  in  a  night  that  bas 
no  dawn:  where  victories  will  only  open 
up  new  labors  and  anxieties,  and  where, 
perhaps,  mo  rest  will  come,  until  under  the 
culminative  heartache  of  it  all  you  yearn 
tor  the  tender  grace  of  a  grave — ^glad  to 
return  to  dull  dust,  inert,  irresponsible,  in- 
sensible, until  the  judgment  day. 


Young  Men  for  War 
49 

So  now  lift  up  your  hearts  and  pray  for 
a  strip  of  God  Almighty's  thorough-brac- 
ing* from  heel  to  medulla,  while  I  point  out 
to  3-0U  from  this  mountain-top  the  posi- 
tion of  the  enemy  and  his  personnel: 

The  saloon  with  all  the  flower  of  hell's 
feudal  chivalry  holds  the  center,  greaved 
and  helmeted  with  federal  laws,  and  in 
chain-mail  of  statutes  and  ordinances  in- 
terwoven, rich  beyond  computation,  hun- 
gry beyond  any  d.reQ.m  of  gluttony,  cruel 
past  the  imaginings  of  any  terror — ^whose 
madmen  kill  each  other  in  the  name  of 
friendship,  whose  murderers  strip  the 
dead  and  hunt  the  soul  to  deaith.  Breeder 
of  wife-beaters,  motheir-killers,  brutes  to 
whom  rape  is  playful,  and  nameless  crim.- 
inals  of  low  and  high  degree. 

«   4f   « 

Against  that,  I  do  not  seek  how  to  inr 
flame  you.  You  have  seen  it,  and  my  poor 
words  are  sheerest  rubbish  in  descrip- 
tion. 

You  know  it  well,  and  hate  it  in  your 
soul.  You  have  fought  it,  do  fight  it,  will 
fight  it  to  the  death. 

But  look  you:  its  power  has  grown  un- 
der your  fire.  You  have  bombarded  it 
with  antiseptics  and  tonics  and  prophy- 
lactics.   It  would  have  died  of  apopl-exy 


Young  Men  for  War 
50 

by  the  plethora  of  its  own  aecursed  heart- 
be-a't  ere  this,  liad  we  not  bled  it  into 
sounder  health  by  the  imbecile  phlebot- 
omy of  tax  and  mulct  and  license,  and  for- 
t'fied  it  by  the  enforced  gymnastics  of 
"regulation."  And  on  the  firs.t  day  of 
every  fiscal  year  it  bares  its  murderous 
arm,  and  inTites  your  life-saving  lancet, 
mounts  the  "health-lift"  of  "restriction" 
voluntarily,  and  laughs  the  church  to 
scorn.  For  the  sake  of  the  luxury  of  self- 
respect,  stop  that!  It  is  a  case  for  a  dag- 
ger, not  a  lancet.  But  I  adjure  you  by 
the  barest  common  sense  of  the  feeblest 
among  you  not  to  fire  another  shot  at  the 
saloon  until  you  change  your  ammunition 
nor  even  then  until  you  shell  the  wings. 

Shell  the  wings,,  I  s-ay.  For  see!  upon 
the  right  and  left  the  hired  mercenaries  of 
the  liquor  traffic,  your  own  great  political 
parties,  bought  off  from  loyalty  and  duty 
to  turn  the  power  you  have  delegated  to 
them,  against  you  and  your  JOord,  and  paid 
in  offices  and  spoils  and  bloody*  gold.  I 
must  be  careful  what  I  say;  but  if  the  sa- 
loon is  an  enemy  of  this  country,  those 
parties  are  trait  or  S' — ^by  every  definition  of 
the  word. 

*«•  »  * 

The  task  I  set  myself  this  afternoon  is  a 


Young  Men  for  War 

most  thankless  one,  but  peremptory,  and  you 
have  put  no  check  upon  me;  no  boss  with 
a  blue  pencil  has  poked  his  wooden  convic- 
tions and  blue-clay  brains  into  this  manu- 
script. 

And  I  must  tell  you  what  you  already 
know  too  well,  that  the  great  cause  is 
losing — is  lost  unless  our  lines  reform. 

Our  plan  of  battle  5s  too  small.  It  is  a 
childish,  popgun  business  to  push  this 
fight  from  year  to  year  up  to  the  very 
door  of  the  saloon,  while  every  time  we 
mass  the  power  of  the  church  upon  the 
center,  and  really  threaten  it,  the  Republi- 
can right  wing  and  the  Democratic  left 
wing  of  the  triple  alliance  swing  *round 
upon  our  flanks  and  enfilade  us  with  ghost 
filories  until  we  come  to  terms. 
*  *  * 

And  we  do  come  to  terms.  The  saloon- 
keeper is  no  match  for  the  Christian  voter, 
man  for  man.  The  Christian  manhood  of 
this  nation  has  never  given  an  inch  be- 
fore the  liquor  traffic. 

But    it  flies  like   wild-fowl   before    the 
twin  scare-crows  it  sets  up  alternately. 
>*  *  -If 

I  call  but  one  witness,  poor,  bedraggled 
Iowa,  fallen  from  the  forefront  of  Western 
progress  and  standing  now  in  scarlet  at 


Young  Men  for  War 
52 

her  windiow,  soriciting-  sbame  for  revenue. 

She  would  have  stamped  out  the  saloon 

like  the  foul  reptile,  that  it  was,  but  that 

fear  of  iparty,  put  a  "buck  and  gtag"  upon 

the  church,  while  the  saloon  siandbag-g^ed 

the  public  school. 

#  »  » 

After  fifty  years  of  education,  evangeli- 
zation, and  legislation,  the  saloon  is  com- 
mander-in-chief of  our  political  forces. 
Jt  holds  its  place  by  virtue  of  owning"  a 
controlling'  interest  in  each  of  the  ruling 
parties,  and  the  church  vote  is  in  the  deal. 

What  are  you  g'oing  to  do  about  that? 
Therf»  is  the  issue  "in  a  nutshell."  You 
may  shut  your  eyes  to  it.  You  m,ay  refuse 
to  listen  to  it.  You  may  shut  the  doiors 
of  your  conventions  in  the  future  to  such 
a3  I.  But  there  is  a  question  you  have 
got  to  answer — or  answer  for  it  in  the 
jadgment. 

«  «  » 

You  ask  me  for  a  method  that  will 
please  us  all.  There  is  none.  But  one 
methiod  is  open  to  us,  and  it  will  please  no- 
body. 

The  slimpsey  soldiery  that  is  on  the 
look-cut  for  something  easy,  non-partizan, 
non-sectarian,  inter-partizan,  inter-sec- 
tarian, has  worn  out  its  occupation. 


Young  Men  for  War 
53 

The  man  who  fights  the  saloon  for  a  per 
diem,  collected  from  Republicans  and 
I>em.ocrats,  is  as  incapable  in  this  fight  as 
a  jumping-frog  filled  with  sho't. 

What  we  do  now  must  be  super^ec- 
tirian  and  super-partizan;  and  to  that 
height  no  man  rises  but  in  piain. 

*   4t   * 

What  can  we  do? 

Reform  the  line;  leave  the  non-voting 
public  sentiment  to  hold  the  centdr.  The 
women  and  children  will  kill  the  saloon, 
whenever  there  is  manhood  enough  to 
guard  the  flanks. 

Christian  men  must  break  the  spell  of  the 
paltry  party  effigies  which  in  the  old  clothes 
of  patriotism  work  treason  to  the  church, 
the  school-house  and  the  home. 

The  fight  now  is  simply  a  duel  between 
Christianity  and  party  politics,  and  for 
that  the  present  voting  basis  will  not  an- 
swer. 

It  takes  the     straight,     uncomplicated 
*  faith  of  the  Son  of  God"  to  make  a  man 
or  woman  stand  fire  in  a  fight  like  thia. 
»  «  « 

You  will  be  told  to  join  "The  Anti-Saloon 
League,"  but  I  venture  to  advise  you  not 
to  touch  it.  An  inter-saloon  party  anti- 
saloon  league  might  be  a  throne  for  a.  non- 


Young  Men  for  War 
54 

combiatant,  but  it  is  a  dunce-block  for  a 
Ghristian  vo.ter. 

«  «  « 

You  will  be  told  to  stay  in  the  party 
where  you  are,  and  take  "the  world  for 
Christ."  If  that  is  not  nonsense,  I  do  not 
understand  the  word.  As  w^ell  might 
Daniel's  friends  have  said  to  him:  "Eat 
djrt  with  Belshazzar  and  take  Babylon  for 
Christ."  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
Tnon,"  and  the  business  of  the  great  parties 
is  to  "hold  up"  the  people — a  crime  com- 
pared to  which  sporadic  bank  robbery  is 

pure  altruism. 

«-  ^  « 

I  call  you  to  face  the  teaching  of  your 
catechism  tha't  never  yet,  to  man  or  party, 
did  regeneration  come  from  within.  Your 
party  will  never  feel  under  compulsion, 
or  need,  or  anxiety,  to  mend  while  it  can 
hold  your  suipport  and  yet  serve  the  sa- 
loon. 

And  so,  against  those  cringing  fl-anks 
that  swarm  w'itli  your  own  friends  and 
kindred,  I  call  you,  young  man,  to  be  one 
of  a  handful  now,  wdthout  political  pros- 
pects, purse,  or  scrip,  or  any  weapon  but 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  free  ballot  of  an 
independent  American  citizen. 

I  knew  what  I  was  talking  about  when  I 


Yonng  Men  for  War 
55 

took  "Strength"  for  my  theme.  It  does 
your  heart  no  discredit  if  you  shrink.  For 
I  call  you  to  nothing  less  than  to  break, 
*n  politics,  with  life-long  friendships  and 
even  with  your  own  blood. 

But  I  speak  ''by  the  Book:"  "Think  not 
that  I  am  come  to  send  peace  on  earth;  I 
came  not  to  send  peace  but  a  sword.  For 
T  am  come  to  set  a  man  at  variance  against 
his  father,  and  the  daughter  against  her 
mother,  and  the  daughter-in-law  against 
her  mother-in-law.  And  a  man's  foes  shall 
be  they  of  his  own  household.  He  that 
loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  Me  is 
not  worthy  of  Me.  And  he  that  taketh  nat 
his  cross  and  followeth  after  Me  is  no»t 
worthy  of  Me." 

If  He  who  spoke  those  words  spoke  with 
authority,  what  will  He  say  of  a  church 
which  at  the  general  election  divides  its 
voting  strength  between  two  parties  that 
ar€  openly  coadjutors  of  the  saloon? 

But  let  us  stand  squarely  to  the  facts. 
This  is  a  government  of  the  worst  people, 
for  the  worst  people,  by  the  worst  people, 
and  the  peril  of  the  nation  and  the  dis- 
grace of  the  church  is  that  99  per  cent  of 
the  best  people  stoop  to  get  unclean  money 
"for  the  support  of  the  gospel"  or  to  get 
unclean  votes  for  the  support  of  the  party. 


Young  Men  for  War 
56 

There  is  absolutely  nu  hope  for  thia 
country  while  the  current  of  Christiian 
citizenship  sets  that  way.  The  reason,  sta^ 
bility  and  value  of  popular  g^overnment 
require  that  each  g^ood  citizen  stand  for 
the  best  he  knows  at  the  polls.  He  may,  he 
should,  consider  himself  a  subject  and  a 
fragmen-t,  as  to  what  he  pays  and  what  he 
gets,  but  a  sole,  self-sufficienit,  divinely 
imperial  mionarch  when  he  votes. 

The  ballot-box' is  a  meter  for  the  free 
public  virtue  of  a  community.  The  legis- 
lature is  the  indicator  of  its  static  value 
when  comfined.  The  executive  shows  its 
loss  in  application  by  the  stretch  of  belts 
and  the  friction  of  machinicry. 
*  *  * 

The  relation  of  these  things  never  varies. 
The  civil  service  is  as  good  as  the  legisla- 
tion, and  the  legislation  is  as  good  as  the 
voting.  The  policeman  sells  out  to  the 
saloon-keper  because  the  legislature  sold 
out  to  the  saloon,  and  the  legislature  sella 
out  to  the  saloon  because  the  people  have 
already  sold  out  to  the  saloon  party. 

The  present,  prospective,  and  ultimate 
necessity  of  the  matter  is  the  political 
emancipation  of  the  Christian  voter. 

And  for  that,  it   is   no   disparagement 


Young  Men  for  War 
57 

of  other  Christian  virtues  to  say  that  we 
need  nothing  now  but  strength. 

The  time  is  ripe,  education  is  abundant, 
senitiment  is  ready.  But  men  watch 
each  other  and  weaken  in  the  tug  o-f  pairty 
war.  It  is  not  because  they  are  insin- 
cere or  weak,  intrinsically.  They  are  vic- 
tims of  flimsy  educatio-n.  They  have  not 
been  taught  to  be  strong,  but  to  be  cau- 
tious. The  American  eagle  has  raised  a 
brood  of  woodcock,  while  the  voting 
ohurch  has  taught  that  discretion  is  the 
better  part  of  virtue.  They  have  been 
taught  that  Satan's  teeth  are  to  be  plugged 
with  gold  until  the  Lord  comes. 
*  *  * 

It  is  on  record  that  the  most  noted  evan- 
gelist of  modern  times  said  recently:  "I 
am  a  Prohibitionist.  I  always  vote  Pro- 
hibition at  home.  But  I  would  not  turn 
my  hand  to  give  Prohibition  to  the  nation, 
because  public  sentiment  is  not  ready." 

Which  is  to  say:  That,  as  to  this  thing,  I 
will  accept  Christ  except  where  the  crowd 
is  against  him. 

Loyalty  as  discreet  as  that  looks'  like 
treason.  Such  teaching  poisons  the  wells 
of  faith  and  spreads  disease,  and  by  such 
example  the  young  manhood  of  the  nation 
learns  to  scorn  the  church. 


Young  Men  for  War 
58 

I  speak  of  miy  betters,  not  to  impugn 
Iheir  mo'tives,  but  to  point  out  their  falla- 
C'es,  while  I  preach  to  you  the  glory  of  the 
cross  of  Christ,  and  a  glorious  indiscre- 
tion that  would  attempt  the  impossible,  on 
His  bare  word  for  honor  and  for  truth. 

"Virtue  for  popularity  defiles  like  vice." 

•K-  *  * 

Some  one  will  object  to  this  that  the 
business  of  the  church  is  to  "preach 
Christ"  and  "save  souls,"  and  that  is  true. 
And  by  the  same  token  it  is  the  business 
of  the  Christian  voter  to  stand  against 
her  enemies  so  that  she  may  have  a  decent 
chance  to  save  souls.  And  I  siay  without 
a  misgiving,  that  the  deadliest  handicap 
upon  the  spiritual  power  of  the  church  is 
old-party  politics. 

The  saloon  does  not  debauch  sinners 
more  rapidly  or  m'ore  effectively  than  the 

old  party  debauches  saints. 

*  *  * 

You  say  that  there  must  be  no  union  of 
church  and  state.  But  I  remind  you  that 
the  government  of  this  Christian  nation  is 
determined  every  four  years  by  a  union  of 

the  church  and  the  saloon. 

*  *  * 

You  tell  me  that  the  call  of  the  church 
is  to  save  individuals  from  their  sins,  and 


Young  Men  for  War 
59 

50  it  is.  But  I  poin^t  out  to  you  that  the 
last*  congress  held  the  hides  of  Texas 
steers  higher  than  the  hearts  of  American 
womanhood,  and  that  at  the  last  election 
the  voting  church  went  in  for  saving  every- 
thing  but  men,  and  she  swarms  with  men 
in  pulpit  amd  in  pew  who  make  a  mock  a't 
sin  in  party  polities,  and  who  get  votes 
and  offices  and  power  by  the  destruction  of 
the  faith  of  more  men  every  year  tha-n 
sLe  even  deals  with. 

^  *  * 

You  say  this  is  the  dispensation  of  grace, 
not  of  law.  But  I  tell  you  that  this  is  the 
dispensation  of  disgrace,  in  American  pol- 
itics, with  the  Christian  voter  particeps 
crimiuis. 

^  ^  * 

You  say  that  the  work  of  the  church  is 
Fpiritual.  But  I  tell  you  that  on  the  ge-n- 
eral  election  day  she  is  swamped  in  the 
baldest,  basest,  worldliest  materialism,  and 
has  no  fitting  emblem  but  a  flesh-pot. 

What  new  malignity  is  this  I  utter 
against  the  church?  Not  a  word  of  mar 
lignity  or  even  of  criticism  have  I  or  had  I 
ever  to  spe<ak  against  her.  She,  the  official 
church,  has  done  what  she  could,  and  even 
the  men  whom  I  hold  most  to  blame  for 
our  sad  plight  are  in  their  hearts  sincere, 


Young  Men  for  War 
60 

but  weaik.  She  has  declared  the  wbole 
counsel  of  Goicl  upon  this  ma'tter.  She  it 
was,  amd  no  crank  party  Prohibitionist, 
who  put  her  fing'er  on  party  slavery  and 
said:  *'There  is  the  knot  to  cut."  But  she 
could  not  cut  it.  I  said  she  put  her  finger 
on  the  spot,  but  she  has  no  hands.  She 
has  naen,  and  men  have  hands,  and  men  are 
free,  and  the  same  men  who  have  made  her 
glorious  in  speech  have  made  her  con- 
lem<ptible  in  action  with  their  hands. 

Her  power  in  the  premises  was  exhia>ust- 
ed  when  she  em;bodied  truth  and  duty  in 
a  resolution  which  to  any  noble  mind 
ought  to  have  bad  the  force  of  law,  and 
sent  it  ringing  through  the  land. 

But  she  has  no  machinery  for  the  con- 
servation of  Christian  energy,  but  mem, 
and  her  men  have  failed  her  in  the  crisis 
of  election  day. 

•5f  »  * 

And  the  most  splendidly  pitiful  spectacle 
in  this  world  today  is  the  church  as  ehe 
stands,  white  and  clean,  upon  the  summit 
«>f  civilization,  entrenched,  impregnable, 
irresistible.  Her  stupendous  batteries 
command  every  square  inch  of  the  battle^ 
field,  One  broadside  of  spiritual  grape 
and  canister  would  rout  the  mercenaries 
and  put  the  arch  enemy  at  her  mercy.  But 


UN 


Young  Men  fot  War 
6J 

while  her  flag  flies  bravely  out  against  the 
sky,  she  fires  blank  cartridges  at  her  foes, 
who  laugh  at  her,  and  give  her  missionary 
money,  as  if  she  were  some  ga-rrulous  old 
btldame,  to  toss  a  penny  to  and  then  ig- 
nore. 

*  4t   * 

There  are  two  reasons  why  she  fires 
blank.  First,  because  her  gutnners  fear 
that  the  reicoil  of  shotted  siege  guns  might 
jar  the  stained-glass  windows  and  inter- 
rupt the  offertory. 

By  "gunners"  1  mean  the  managing  offi- 
cers. If  they  would  stand  together  at  the 
polls  to  sustain  the  par  value  of  her  polit- 
ical declarations  they  would  throw  the 
old  parties  upon  thedr  beam  ends  and  leave 
nothing  to  be  dome  but  to  tow  the  slippery 
old  derelicts  into  port  and  break  them 
up. 

And  in  a  realignment  of  our  citizenship, 
Prohibition  would  take  the  first  place 
upon  the  program  without  a  rival  or  a 

question. 

*  *  » 

The  other,  and  the  principal  reason  why 
t]ie  church  fires  blank,  is  because  she  is 
short  of  ammunition.  Her  resolutions 
make  a  noise,  and  with  magnificen't  loyal- 
ty to  principle,  and  most  pathetic  help- 


Young  Men  for  War 
62 

lessness,  she  rams  her  guns  with  them  to 
the  muzzle,  and  at  sunrise  and  sunset  fires 
a  salute  to  show  that  she  is  "against"  the 
one  my. 

But  the  only  missiles  she  can  use  arci 
ballots,  and  they  belong  to  her  men,  and 
are  immovable  by  any  fulminate  but  their 
own  will. 

She  cannot  cast  the  votes  for  her  mem- 
bers. Her  gunnery  is  spiritual.  She  can 
onl}'^  rake  the  field  by  having  such  true, 
strong  men  in  her  service  thait  when  her 
resolutions  thunder  forth  the  will  of  God 
upon  any  subject,  m.en  will  walk  straight 
to  the  polls  and  underscore  it  with  th« 
bayonet  of  civic  power. 
^  *  * 

Do  not  fail  of  my  meaning.  I  am  not 
here  in  behalf  of  the  Prohibition  Party. 
But  I  assert  that  you  must  join  it  or  make 
a  new  party,  or  leave  the  church  dishon- 
ored and  disabled. 

4f  #  » 

I  say  that  every  man  of  you  who  would 
follow  Jesus  Christ,  must  leave  the   two 
old  parties.  You  cannot  keep  that  company 
and  have  Him  with  you  at  the  polls. 
«  «  # 

"Come  out  from  among  them  and  be  ye 
separate  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing, 


Young  Men  for  War 
63 

and  I  will  receive  you  a.nd  will  be  a  Father 

unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be  My  sons  and 

daughters,  saith  the  Lord  God  Almighty." 

^  *  * 

I  finish  as  I  began,  pleading  for  Strength, 
Christian  manhood,  of  heart  power,  brain 
power,  hand  power,  that  measures  by 
foot-pounds,  not  up,  but  forward,  in  Jesus' 
name. 


Zk  flDcrciee  of  (Boo. 

•'  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by  Ihe  mercies 
of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice, 
holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service." 

flDO  not  speak  today  to  slaves  of  al- 
cohol or  lust  or  crime,  but  to  tlie 
self-respecting,  self-controlling,  self- 
indulging  victors  in  the  race  for 
life:  the  leaders,  molders,  masters — 
if  they  would  be — of  the  social  or- 
der, the  Christian  voters.  And  toward 
e^^ery  one  of  you  who  is  a  Cha-istian,  no 
miatter  what  your  party,  sect,  or  creed, 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition  of  polit- 
ical servitude,  when  I  take  my  first  words, 
as  I  do,  and  indeed  the  whole  body  of  my 
thought,  as  I  do,  from  this  great  book 
which  you  call  the  Woird  of  God,  and  which 
you  acknowledge  to  be  the  binding  and 
paramount  authority  of  your  life  in  all  itts 
ways,  I  put  myself  in  a  position  to  demand 
of  you  a  hearing,  and  while  I  keep  true  to 
its  spirit  and  within  its  scope,  to  commamd 
your  heads  and  hearts  not  only,  but  your 

hands  as  well. 

«  «  « 

Listen:       "I    beseech     you,     the.refore, 

€4 


The  Mercies  of  God 
65 

brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  ithat  yon 
present  your  bodies  a  liviing-  saicrifice,  holy, 
accep't'able  un'to  God,  which  is  your  rea- 
efonable  service." 

One  oftetn  hears  it  said  that  Paul  was  a 
hard,  harsh,  opinionated,  unsympathettic 
man;  that  is  the  usual  misjudg^m-ent  of  the 
Eeformer  who  stands  four-square  t'o  truth, 
in  word  and  life;  but  it  seems  to  me,  that 
upon  that  si-ngle  verse  might  well  be  build- 
ed  a  monument  to  the  great  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles  as  one  of  the  world's  most  gra- 
cious iteachers  aind  most  courteous  gen- 
tlemen. 

«    4f    4(- 

"I  beseech  you!"  It  is  the  humblest  aip- 
peal  a  noble  man  can  make  to  others,  no 
acdd,  no  hard  words,  no  rancor,  no  unch'ar- 
ity.  I  wish  that  I  myself  had  learned  the 
lesson;  I  have  tried  to,  and  will  try  to  get 
the  gracio'us  use  o'f  that  apostolic  "I  be- 
seech you."    God  help  us  all  to  do  it! 

"Brethren!"  It  is  an  aippeal  upon  the 
level;  no  "orders"  from  the  headquarters 
of  some  swaggering  martinet,  repeated  by 
lieutenants  and  sergeants  to  the  rank  and 
file;  no  speaking  down  from  some  top- 
lofty pulpit  or  pedestal  of  wealth  or  rank 
or  scholarship  or  office,  but  plain,  straight, 
hand-to-hand,      brain-to-brain,      heart-to- 


The  Mercies  of  God 

heart     Christian    democracy     "upon     the 

squiare." 

*  *  * 

I  addressed  a  meeting-  of  working  people 
in  England  once,  where  the  chairman,  an 
earl's  daughter,  and  an  excellent  woman, 
introduced  me  something  like  this: 
"Now,  good  people,  you  of  the  lower  class- 
es muii^  know  that  we,  of  the  nobility,  are 
interested  in  you;  for  we  nave  brougbt  Mr. 
Woolley  'all  the  way  from  America,  to 
speak  to  you ! "  It  was  said  in  the  best  of 
humor,  and  seemed  quite  pal'ktable  enough 
to  the  crowd,  for  they  applauded — ^to  a 
hiamd.  But  there  is  none  of  that  about 
Paul.  He  had  a  pedigree,  too,  bu't  he  did 
no't  wave  it  in  the  faces  of  the  people  whom 
he  sought  to  move  -to  righteousnetss  of 
life. 

In  the  laist  campaign  the  victorious  party 
came  out  into  the  great,  generous,  hon- 
est, mistaken  Wesit  and  said — in  effect: 
"Now  you  fools  and  cranks  and  repudia- 
tOTs,  honesty  is  a  Eepublican  attribute; 
patriotism  is  ours;  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
are  a  McKinley  badge.  Come,  now,  good 
fellows,  we  are  interested  in  you.  Do  as 
we  tell  you,  or  you'll  hear  froiri  the  mort- 
gagee. Come,  now,  with  us,  or  look  out 
for  panic.    Take  a  ticket,  and  make  an  ex- 


The  Mercies  of  God 
67 

cursion  to  Oantt)n,  and  see  what  we  will 
d'o  for  you." 

And  brave  old  generals  of  the  armies,  of 
the  South  and  of  the  North,  in  the  heat  of 
the  struggle  for  money,  felt  led  to  intimate 
that  all  loyalty  bad  been  thrown  into  a 
"blind  pool"  under  the  management  of 
Matthew  Quay,  Mark  Hanna,  and  other 
evangelists.  And  sleek  and  petted  East- 
ern ministers  leaned  arms  that  had  never 
a<;hed  upon  their  velvet  pulpits,  and  told 
their  golden  pews  that  silver  men,  and 
Socialisits,  and  Democrats,  and  Prohibi- 
tionists were  dishonest  and  disloyal  and 
depraved. 

The  parity  of  the  m'onumental  impudence 
won  the  day,  and  if  money  had  to  be  the 
measure  of  patriotic  expediency,  if  Chris- 
tian m'anho'od  could  be  put,  life-size  upon 
a  gold  dollar,  1  think  it  was  for  the  best 
that  it  should  win;  but  for  the  insolent 
arroga-nce  of  its  address  to  the  country  it 
earned  the  deep  contempt  of  every  friend 
of  fair  and  free  debate. 

What  a  different  tone — ^what  an  object- 
lesson  for  debating,  here:  *'I  beseech  you, 
brethren."  T  am  no  boiss,  but  a  bond- 
servant of  Jesus.  God  is  our  common 
Father.  "One  is  our  Master,  even  Christ, 
and  all  we  are  brethren." 


The  Mercies  of  God 
68 

But  it  is  not  by  the  strong  bond  of  kin- 
dred blood  tbait  1  beseech  you. 

God  is  a  spirit,  and  hard  for  us  to  realize 
itn  homely,  every-day  affairs.  We  pray  to 
Him,  and  stretch  out  our  hands  up  into 
the  darkness  of  our  greater  experiences, 
if  haply  we  might  feel  His  hand;  but  He 
seems  far  away,  to  some  of  us — to  all  of  us, 
sometimes.  And  so,  not  by  His  father- 
hood, nor  by  His  son,  nor  by  His  throne, 
nor  by  His  extra  or  diniary  revelations,  but 
by  His  mercies,  I  beseech  you;  the  com- 
mon, sensible,  unmistakatjle  daily  bless- 
ings He  bestoiws,  of  which  David  siaid, 
"Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  who  daily  load- 
eth  us  with  benefits."  Th€  bre'ad  you  ate 
this  miorning,  while  others  as  deiserving, 
fasted — and  some  starved;  the  drouth  that 
did  not  come;  the  bolt  that  did  not  fall;  the 
sal'ary  that  continued  through  the  years  of 
pfa«nic;  the  illmess  that  yielded  to  treat- 
ment; the  lie  that  fell  flat;  thelettter  from 
home  that  put  am  end  to  fear;  the  love  that 
shines  upon  your  life  in  all  its  ways; 
the  baby  face  at  the  winidow  and  the  grefat, 
faithful,  unfa'thomiable  heart,  back  in  the 
shadow: — one  is  not  apt  to  take  these  things 
very  seriously  unless  he  himself  ha®  been 
a  "mian  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief." 


The  Mercies  of  God 
69 

"By  the  mercies  of  Gad:"  I  wonder 
how  many  of  you  have  really  thoug-ht  of 
them.  Your  son  has  no  taint  of  the  drink 
mjadness  in  his  blood:  do  not  say  that 
therefore  you  ha.ve  no  Interestt  in  the 
Great  Eeform,  but  by  thait  mercy,  and  for 
the  sake  of  odher  boys  who  have  no  chance 
a»t  all  for  a  clean  life,  enlist  with  us  to 
close  the  mills  that  grind  up  boys 
like  rag's  to  make  the  paper  for  the  diary 
of  failure  and  oi  crime. 

Two  hundred  and  fonty  thousand  sa- 
loons yawn  along  our  way.  They  are  no 
temptation  to  you.  You  despise  them,  and 
pass  them.  But  the  man  behind  you,  as 
briave  as  you  are,  and  ten  thousand  times 
m'ore  anxious  to  do  right,  hates  the  saloon, 
but  goes  in,  a.nd  drinks  his  mind  to  a  chaos 
and  his  heart  to  a  clot,  because  he  has  to. 
You  did  not  have  to;  is  that  your  own  good 
managememt?  In  such  a  fight  as  his,  what 
would  have  become  of  you?  By  the  mercy 
of  God  that  has  spared  you  that,  I  beg  of 
you  to  lend  a  hand  for  the  other  man. 

I  telegraphed  to  my  home  in  Boston, 
after  a  long  a.bsence  on  the  wes't  coast: 
"I  will  arrive  at  home  tonight  at  11." 
The  train  was  late;  long  after  midnight  I 
came  under  her  window.  The  light  was 
bumiinig,  and  i  knew  that  she  was  waiting 


The  Mercies  of  God 
70 

for  me.  I  let  myself  in;  there  were  two 
flights  o'f  stairs,  but  tm^enty  w^ould  hiave 
been  noithing  to  rae,  my  heart  wais  hauling 
awiay,  like  a  greai;  balloon.  She  stood  in 
the  middle  of  our  room  as  pale  a.nid  cold 
and  motionless  as  a  woma*n  of  snow,  and  I 
knew  a't  a  glance  that  the  swe'et,  brave  life 
was  in  torture.  "What  is  it?"  I  cried, 
"wha't  is  the  matter?"  and  in  my  arms  she 
sobbed  out  the  everlasting  tragedy  of  her 
wedded  life:  "Nothing — at  any  raite,  noth- 
inig  ought  to  be  the  matter.  I  do  believe  in 
you;  I  knew  you  would  come  home;  but 
I  have  listened  for  you  for  so  many  years, 
that  I  seem  to  be  just  one  great  ear  when 
you  are  aw^ay  beyond  your  time;  I  seem  to 
have  lost  all  sense  but  that  of  hearing 
whe(n  you  are  absent,  unexplained,  and 
every  sound  on  the  street  startles  me,  and 
every  step  on  the  stairs  is  a  threat  and  a 
pain,  and  the  stillness  chokes  me,  and  the 
d'arkne-ss  smothers  me.  \nd  all  the  old, 
unhappy  home-co«mings  troop  through  my 
mind,  without  omitting  one  detail,  and  to- 
ndght  I  heard  the  children  sig*hing  in  their 
sleep,  a«nd  I  thoug'ht  I  should  die  when  1 
thought  of  you  having  to  walk  in  your 
weariness,  and  in  this  midnight,  through 
Kneeland  street  alone." 
She  thinks  thait  I  will  never  fall;    and 


The  Mercies  of  God 
71 

would  deny  tod-ay  tha^t  she  knows  any  f eiar, 
but  yet,  until  the  under'taker  screws  her 
sweet  face  out  of  my  sight  forever,  tbat 
ghastly,  unformed,  niameless  thing  will 
walk  the  chambers  of  her  heart  whenever 
I  am  uoaccoumted  for. 

By  the  mercy  of  God,  -that  has  given  t.o 
you  the  unshaken  confidence  of  her  you 
love,  "I  beseeeh  you,"  make  a  fighlt  for  the 
wome-n  who  wait  tonight  until  the  saloon 
sipews  out  their  husbands  and  thedr  »0'ns 
and  sends  them  maudlin,  brutish,  devilish, 
vomiting,  stinking,  to  their  arms.  A'ud 
you,  happy  wives,  whose  hearts  have  never 
w^avered  nor  had  occasion  to  waver.  Bind 
who,  when  your  husbands  fail  to  come  on 
time,  can  go  to  bed  without  a  fear  and  gro 
to  sleep  with  smiles  upon  your  lips,  and 
sleep  the  long  night  through  too  peacefully 
even  to  dream,  bv  the  mercy  of  God,  that 
gives  you  th>at,  I  beseech  you,  band  your- 
selves to  help,  at  least  to  cheer,  the  wive«s, 
who,  their  whole  lives  throug^h,  must  walk 
the  rotten  lav^a-crust  of  burnt-out  conifi- 
dience — their  very  love  a  terror  and  a  paim. 
f  »  » 

I  shall  never  dr^ink  again,  but  one  night 
in  a  New  England  train,  and  very  ill,  I  met 
a  stranger  who  pitied  me  and  gave  me  a 
quick,  powerful  drug  out  of  a  small  vial, 


The  Mcfciss  of  God 
72 

and  my  pain  was  gone  in  a  mdnute  or  two. 
but  alcohol  was  licking  up  my  very  blood 
with  tongues  of  flame. 

I  should  have  gotten  drunk  that  night,  if 
I  could.  I  thought  of  everything — of  my 
two  yetars  of  clean  life;  of  the  meeting  I 
was  going  to,  vouched  for  by  my  friend 
and  brother,  D.  L.  Moody,  w'hose  faith  in 
me — withdrawn,  now,  I  fear — had  gone  out 
into  all  the  world;  of  the  bright  little 
home  in  New  York;  of  Mary  and  the  boys; 
I  tried  to  pray,  and  my  lips  framed  oiaths. 
I  reached  up  for  God,  and  He  was  gone,  and 
the  fiercest  fiend  of  hell  had  me  by  the 
throat  and  shouted,  "Drink,  drink,  drink!" 
I  said,  "But  Mary — ^but  the  boys;"  it  said, 
"To  hell  with  Mary — come  om,  to  the  sa- 
loon!" 

It  was  not  yet  daylight,  Su'nd»ay  morn- 
ing, when  I  stood  on  the  platform  at  Paw- 
tucket  alone.  1  flew  from  salo  m  to  sa- 
loon, they  were  shut,  so  were  the  drui;- 
sit  ores,  and  all  that  day,  locked  in  my  room 
at  the  hotel,  I  fought  my  fight  and  won  it 
in  the  evening,  by  the  grace  of  God;  and 
the  people  never  knew  that  the  man  who 
spoke  to  them  that  night  had  been  in  hell 
all  day. 

What  would  you  take,  in  cash,  to  hav« 
that  putt  into  your  life? 


The  Mercies  of  God 

It  is  I'o  be  my  portion  untdl  my  dyiii>g 
diay,  and  if  merciful,  patient  time  sliall 
cauterize  and  he-al  the  old,  dishonoTa-ble 
wounds  -and  cover  them,  with  repulsive  but 
impetrviouis  cicatrices,  yet  beeause  I  had 
those  wounds  1  am  to  be  through  my  whole 
life  considered  a  moral  cliff-dweller,  a 
creature  of  precipices,  where  one  false  s'tep 
ends  all;  amd  so,  denied  full  coaifiden<je  of 
nay  fellow-men — ^the  highesit  graice  of  life 
to  strive  for,  in  this  world;  a.n«d  I  am  told  I 
have  a  Christ iian  enemy  or  two  who  wait  on 
tiptoe  of  expetctancy  and  oheerfully  pno- 
phesy  the  sure,  near-co'ming  O'f  my  final 
plunge  back  into  the  Dead  Se'a  of  drink. 

By  the  mercy  of  God  tha.t  has  spared  you 
tha.t*  kind  of  peril  and  that  kind  of  halte, 
"I  beseech  you''  castt  a  vote  next  time  for 
the  Son  of  Man,  who  died  for  drunk- 
ardis,  and  to  make  the  stations  on  life's 
highways,  safe  for  storm-tossed  men  to 
sttop  at,  any  day  or  any  night.  And  you, 
good,  calm,  untempted  men  who  never  fell, 
who  never  t'asted  dearth  for  .any  man  and 
never  mean  to;  who  love  your  party  more 
than  you  hate  a  lie,  bear  with  rae  if  you 
can.  Count  me  an  enemy  of  the  church  if 
you  must,  a  marplot  and  a  fool,  but  spare 
me  the  nuisance  of  your  letters  and  your 
admonition,  and  hear  me  say,  upon  my 


The  Mercies  of  God 
74 

soul,  tbat  baittles  on,  tempted  and  beleag- 
uered, to  'the  judgment  day:  I  distrusft 
any  anti-saloon  mfovement  thait  would 
leave  us  at  the  mercy  of  the  two  old  par- 
ties as  a  cheat  or  a  delusion,  and  I  de- 
nounce those  parties  as  corruptors  of 
manhood  and  misulteris  of  womamhaod, 
common  cheaits  and  bearers  of  false  wit- 
ness, the  frienids  and  advocaites  of  the  sa- 
loon: and  I  say  that  for  the  country's  good 
and  the  church's  opportunity  they  ought 
to  die,  not  one  of  them  by  the  hand  of  the 
oither,  but  both  together,  by  the  Christian 
vote  ,and  be  buried  at  the  parting  of  the 
ways,  in  one  grave,  for  worms  to  eat  theni 
together,  as  they  together  have  eaten  out 
the  substanice  of  a  people  plundered  and 
belt  rayed. 

4f  *  w 

"Present  your  bodies!"  Your  what? 
Your  bodies — not  your  resolu'tio-nts — ^your 
feelings — your  sympathy — your  influence — 
your  song — your  soul,  bu.  thait  substan- 
tial, tangible,  ponderable  tning,  which  the 
wo<rld  can  see  and  touch  and  judge  and 
weigh;  that  with  which  you  work  and 
vote  and  fight,  defend,  endure,  suffer. 

"With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto 
righiteousnesis,  with  the  mo.ut»h  confession 
is  made  unto  salvation."    Witfc  the  body 


is  cample'te,  acceptable,  *'reaisona,ble  ser- 
vice" umt'o  God.  Our  Lord  "was  wou'nded 
for  our  transgression's,  bruised  f>or  our  in- 
iquities, cbastised  for  our  peiace,  striped 
for  our  healing-,  bore  our  sins  in  His  own 
body  upon  the  tree."  The  cross  of  Jesus 
stands  for  a  crucified  body,  and  that  is 
reason  enough  why  you  a^nd  I  should  offer 
our  bodies. 

*  *  * 

Whose  body?  Your  body;  no  hired  mam 
— no  proxy — no  commutiatiun  for  cash. 
"Glorify  God  in  your  body  as  well  as  in 
your  spirit,  which  is  His." 

The  saloon-keeper  serves  with  his  body, 
aiud  in  consequence  controls  this  nation 
today.  Go  to  the  drink-seller,  thou  Chris- 
tian, amd  learn  body  service  How  much 
of  my  body?  My  vocal  cords?  My  signia^ 
ture?  All  your  body;  a  cle^an  heart  means 
clean  hands,  as  well.  Hold  up  your  hand. 
You  held  it  mp  once  before  in  the  ohurch. 
Whait  did  that  mean?  Was  i't  only  a  po- 
lite conventionaiity,  a  graceful  noithing  to 
help  along  the  meeting?  It  mea.nt  thait 
you  bad  given  it  to  God.  Hold  it  up  now; 
look  at  it;  think  of  it;  God's  band,  upon 
your  honor.  Will  you  clasp  the  dirty 
band  of  a  rum-seller  with  it  to  carry  an 
election?    Will  you  cast  a  ballot  thait  in- 


The  Mercies  of  God 

suits  high  heaven  with  it?  Will  you  man 
the  blo'ody  ropes  to  draw  on  a  whisky 
party  with  it?  Most  of  ns  mean  well,  but 
we  have  kept  our  eyes  on  the  clown  in- 
stead of  the  King,  and  played  the  fool. 

*  *  * 

To  whom?  God — not  the  board  of  trus- 
tees— niot  the  public  sentiment — not  the 
bishop,  nor  even  the  church — God. 

*  *  * 

When?  Nex:  time?  *Tre-sent,"  "Pre- 
sent;" it  is  two  words  in  one— verb  and  ad- 
verb combined — and  means  act  now.  What 
would  you  think  of  asoldier  who  at  the 
command,  "Present  arms,"  should  s'ay, 
"When?"  or  "I  will  next  time,"  or  "I  will  if 
the  rest  do,"  or  "I  will  whenever  my  gun 
will  decide  the  victory." 

*  *  * 

A  what? — -a  success — a  candidate — an 
aispirant  for  wealth  and  fame? 

No,  a  "sacriiiee ! "  To  be  burned?  No, 
to  burn.  To  be  consumed?  No,  to  con- 
sume. To  die?  No,  to  live.  Many  a  man 
would  die  for  his  country  who  has  not  the 
courage  or  faith  to  live  for  it  through  one 
election  day.  There  is  no  such  terror  in 
a  cannon's  mouth  as  in  the  mouth  of  a 
political  friend  who  sneers. 


I'hc  Mercies  of  God 

Why  should  I  do  this?  Because  thiait  "is 
your  reasonable  service" — the  sensible, 
practicial  way  to  serve. 

*  *  * 

What  shall  I  accomplish,  a  revolu'tion? 
Probably  noft.  Save  my  own  state?  Bard- 
ly.  My  own  son?  Maybe  noit.  Wha-.t 
shall  I  get  out  of  it?  A  gravestone,  pos- 
sibly. No  matter,  you  are  to  do  i't  "that 
you  may  prove  what  is  that  good  and  ac- 
ceptable and  perfect  will  of  God"  for  a 
man  who  says  lie  serves.  There  will  in  all 
probability  be  no  ea/rthqu'ake  when  you 
begin  'to  do  right,  buit  you  will  get  out  of 
it,  even  by  some  surpassing  miraicle,  "the 
peaice  of  God  that  passeth  understanding" 
— ^and  that  is  power.  And  power  is  what 
we  need. 

You  need  not  worry  about  the  eledtion 
if  only  you  carry  your  own  fragment 
right. 

*  *  * 

A  stoker  in  the  hold  of  a  great  steamship, 
homesick,  swea»ty  and  grimy  and  weary, 
with  am  insignificant  shovelful  of  coal 
poised  ready  to  be  thrown  inito  the  fur- 
nace, talks  with  himself:  "Will  tihis  sthoiv- 
ol-ful  of  coal  drive  this  ship  across  the 
ocean?  No!  Will  it  keep  the  ship  going 
one  mile,  one  inch,  on<e  second?    No^  but 


The  Mercies  of  God 
78 

there  'are  ot'her  s'tokers,  and  more  coal; 
will  ithey  be  faithful?  I  don't  know;  I'm 
noit  th«  capfain  of  the  ship,  but  I  am  the 
commodore  of  this  shovel. 

"This  ship  may  go  to  port  or  lie  to  or 
go  to  the  bottom,  but  my  duity  goes  on, 
and  I  will.  Let  the  captain  se-e  to  the  ship 
and  the  resit  of  hi'S  crew.  But  he  m(ay 
know  he  Was  one  stoker  who  will  shovel 
square  until  the  bell  rings  him  off  his 
Bhifit." 

*  *  * 

You  say:  I  wlil  give  a  sermon.  He 
wants  the  preaclier  for  week  days  and 
election  days  no  less  than  for  th-e  pulpit. 
Y'ou  slay:  I  will  give  a  song.  He  wants  the 
singer.  There  is  such  music  in  you  as  you 
neveir  dreamit  ol,  if  you  will  le>t  Him  play. 
I  will  give  a  prayer.  He  wants  the  pray-er. 
Christians  are  like  carpets;  yo«u  can't 
judge  them  by  tihe  color  or  nap  or  fringe. 
Tapestry  and  bod^-brussels  look  alike 
oin  the  front,  buit  differ  mightily  on  the 
floor  sdde.  -"Tapestry"  looks  all  riglit  in 
the  store,  but  shows  ino  color  on  the  un- 
der side,  and  will  not  bear  walking  on,  and 
beaiting  ruins  it.  "Body-brussels"  shows 
the  colors  through;  it  looks  no  better,  biilt 
will  wear,  and  beiating  helps  it.  Every 
preacher      in      the      land      would      have 


The  Mercies  of  God 
79 

vo/ted  for  Joshua  Levering  last  November 
but  for  the  fear  of  being  beaten.  Beiaiting 
is  good  for  a  good  man  or  a  good  partty — 
it  takes  the  dust  out  and  the 
moth,  softens,  brightens,  purifies.  The 
Church,  South  and  North,  needs 
beating.  You  priay  foe  an  ingathering. 
Batiter  pray  for  a  sifting.  A  revival  is  a 
great  machine,  but  it  is  apt  to  make  tap- 
estry, and  so  are  all  the  hurrah  forms  of 
Chrisltian  work.  Whia>t  this  counttry  needs 
is  "body"  Christianity,  anr'  that  can  only 
be  miade  by  ste.idy,  eveiry-^day  church  work 
and  honie  work,  homest  teaching,  honest 
praying,  honest  voiting  honest  living.  It. 
can  never  be  produced  by  a  church  whose 
word  is  not  as  ^^ood  on  elecition  day  as  any 
other,  nor  by  a  ministry  that  dishonors 
at  the  polls  the  resoluitdons  it  prom-uilgates 
in  the  conference. 

*  *  » 

Shall  I  not  preach?  Ye&  surely,  but  let 
the  gospel  show  on  the  under  side  of  your 
ministry,  clear  down  to  the  earth  of  eleic- 
tion  day.  Shall  I  no't  sing?  Certainly, 
but  let  the  mfusdc  sihow  in  your  hand  as 
well  as  in  your  voice.  If  a  man  sings, 
"Am  I  a  Soldier  of  the  Cross,  a  Follower 
of  the  Lamb?"  and  votes  for  license  or 
keeps  silenrt  for  it  or  supports  a  license 


The  Mercies  of  God 
80 

party — he  answers  his  own  question.  He 
is  not  a  soldier  of  anything,  but  a  sutler; 
he  is  not  "a  follower  of  the  Lamb,"  but  a 
partner  of  the  wolf.  The  sonigs  that  m«ai 
sing  at  worship  tramslaite  themselves  in 
d'aily  life  inito  very  startling  mea.nings. 
In  the  body  of  a  license  Christian,  or  a 
Democrat,  or  a  Republican,  (which  is  the 
same  thing)  on  a  general  election  day,  old 
"Coronation"  is  rendered:  "All  hail  the 
power  of  Jesus'  n'amie,  let  angels  prostrate 
fall,  bring  forth  the  royal  diadem,  and 
crown  him  Lord  of  all" — but  not  umtil  af- 
ter this  election. 

Shall  I  not  pray?  Yes,  "heel  and  toe," 
with  your  "body."  You  are  a  prosperous 
Christian;  there  is  a  poor  woman  in  the 
next  block,  bed-ridden,  hungry.  Pray  for 
her?  Surely,  with  a  baskeit  on  your  arm, 
a  cheer  on  your  lips,  a  blessing  in  every 
finger-tip,  and  the  light  of  God  in  your 
eye.  It  will  be  time  enough  to  do  the 
other  kind  of  praying  when  you  get  back. 
*  *  * 

The  truesit  part  of  prayer  Is  bodily. 

We  often  hear  the  expres^sion,  "Vote  as 
you  pray."  There  is  no  sense  in  that;  one 
always  votes  as  he  prays. 

Listen  to  a  tragedy  in  one  act: — Scene 
first:     Family  prayers;  a.  man  on  his  knees 


The  Mercies  of  God 
8J 

before  an  open  Bible,  saying:  "Our  Father 
who  art  in  he'aven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name, 
Thy  kingdom  come,  Thy  will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven."  What  is  thatt? 
You  can't  tell  by  the  sound;  habit  maybe; 
sham  possibly;  certainly,  "words,  words, 
words." 

Scene  second.  A  caucus;  same  man, 
(aside):  "Now  J  must  act  as  Jesus  would 
have  me  act,  and  demand,  the  world  for 
Christ."  Enter  the  chairmian  of  the  cen- 
tral oommiit'tee,  and  says  pointedly:  "What 
do  you  want?"  The  man:  "If  you  please, 
I  should  like  to  offer  a  copy  of  the  resolu^ 
tion  of  my  church  abomt  the  liquor  traffic." 
The  chairman:  "To  hell  with  your  church 
resolutions;  do  you  want  to  lose  the  sa- 
loon vote?  Don't  you  know  the  honor  of 
the  country  is  at  sitake  this  tim^e?  Stand 
back  and  shut  your  mouth  until  after  elec- 
tion." The  man  does  it.  What  is  that? 
That  is  "Christian"  politics,  as  it  is  taught 
by  object-lessons  at  our  caucuses. 

Scene  third:  A  polling-booth;  chorus 
of  workers:  "The  party  is  in  the  holy 
temple,  with  the  saloon;  lei  all  the  church- 
es be  silent  before  them,  this  time;"  and 
the  man  presents  his  body  and  his  soul, 
"a  living  sacrifice"  to  the  "convenient  sea* 
son"  devil,  splits  his  piety  up  the  back. 


The  Mercies  of  God 
82 

crawls  out  of  li^s  convictions,  and  buttex- 

flies  it  with  the  resit  over  the  mud-flats  of 

spoils  politics.    What  is  that?    Prayer, 

I  called  it  a  tragedy;   it  is  a  farce  in 

three  acts. 

*  *  * 

Let  us  be  very  clear  about  this.  I  speak 
my  testimony  record  my  vow,  sing  my 
psalm,  say  my  prayer,  and  in  my  little  per- 
sonal circle  it  may  pass  at  par,  but  God 
iooketh  at  the  heart,  and  works  are  the 
windows  of  motives. 

This  government  can  stamp  its  dollar 
mark  on  it  fifty  cents  worth  of  silver  and 
pass  it  to  he  boundary  line  of  its  authority, 
but  there  its  value  drops  "to  the  market 
price  of  ihat  kind  of  bulliotn — at  so  much 
per  ounce. 

Prayer  is  like  that — ^worth  precisely 
what  we  will  redeem  it  at,  in  work,  ac- 
cording to  our  light,  our  opportuity,  and 
our  ability. 

When  a  Christian  man  votes  for  men  or 
measures  or  parties,  or  to  continue  condi- 
tions that  permit  or  protect  or  ignore  the 
saloon,  or,  by  refraining  to  vote,  consen»ts 
to  them,  it  is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
precisely  the  same  as  if  he  knelt  ait  the  bal- 
lot-box and  prayed:  "O  God  that  hatest 
sin,  help  our  sinner   to  win,  today.    De- 


The  Mercies  of  God 
83 

feat  the  Prohibitionists,  who  insist  upon 
righteousness  prematurely.  Help  us  to 
keep  back  the  evolution  of  conscience  in 
young  Chris«tian  men,  and  to  sih'a^me  im- 
politic converts  out  of  being  too  true  to 
t'heir  convictions.  Help  us  to  make  our 
party  as  clean  as  the  saloon  vote  w^ill 
*sitan'd.'  Spare  the  saloon  a  little  w^hile, 
until  w^e  beat  the  other  party  for  being 
the  saloon  keeper's  friend.  Let  the  murder 
of  the  innocents  go  on  yet  a  little  w^hile,  for 
Jesus'  sake!" 

*    4f    »f 

Eighteen  sixty-one;  all  the  air  pregnant 
and  heavy  with  peril.  Fifes  and  drums 
scream  and  rattle  in  the  streets.  Men 
stand  in  excited  groups  upon  th-e  corners. 
In  the  square  a  flag  flies  and  a  man  har- 
angues other  men  to  go  to  war.  What  does 
it  all  mean?  The  long  struggle  between 
two  theories  of  the  Constituition  is  to  be 
foug^ht  out  by  wager  ocf  battle.  There  is 
to  be  w-ar:  men  are  to  be  shot  and  starved, 
are  to  die  of  homesickness  in  Northern 
prisons,  to  be  crippled  for  life,  killed  in 
Southern  swamps,  and  lie  there  lost  until 
the  judgmenft  aay.  War — well,  what  of  Tt? 
Look  at  all  the  patriots,  speak  to  them: 
"Wh'ait  will  you  do  for  the  country  now?" 
One  answers,  '*!  will  go  tc    Congress;"  I 


The  Mercies  of  God 
84 

will  be  a  home  guard;"  **I  will  be  a  con- 
tria,citor;"  "I  will  send  a  substitute;**  "I 
will  stand  by  my  sta^te;*'  "I  will  throw  my 
influence  for  the  Union;*  "I  will  loan 
money  to  the  government;"  "I  will  write 
loyal  editorials;"  "I  will  pray  for  the 
country.**  I  am  not  latrg-hing  at  these 
amswens.  All  those  things  were  useful, 
neceissary,  worthy;  intellectual  patrio't- 
ism,  vicarious  paitriotism,  emotional  pa^ 
triot'ism,  financial  patriotism,  officdal  pa- 
triotism, and  so  on. 

But  wait:  ovei  by  the  flag  yonder  a  line 
is  forming;  a  tall  young  fellow  with 
flushed  cheek  and  flashing  eye  steps  into 
the  open  and  iries:  "Stand  here,  every 
man  who  will  give  his  bady  with  his  prin- 
ciples! I  will  be  first;  come  on,  come 
on!** 

The  crowd  cheers,  and  the  recruiting 
officer  is  busy. 

^f    *    "H- 

A  hundred  men  and  boys  marched  down 
the  street  to  the  crude  mu-ic  oi  the  drum 
and  fife,  accepted  by  the  governor  and 
ordered  to  report  for  duty  lorthwith. 

You  remember  how  it  was:  hiandker^ 
chiefs  waved  from  every  balcony  until  to'o 
limp  to  wave  at  all;  we  followed  to  the 
station.    Then   the  train  drew  out  wi'th 


The  Mercies  of  God 
85 

our  soldiers  on  board,  their  hands  fillea 
with  keepsakes  and  mLnia(t.UTeiS  pressed 
upon  them  ait  the  last  moment,  and  the 
band  played:  '*Brave  boys  are  they,  Gone 
a;t  their  country's  call.  And  yet,  and  ye/t 
we  cannot  forget,  That  many  brave  boys 
must  fall."    That  was  body  paftriotism. 

And  we  sang"  and  played  and  resolved 
and  enacted  and  proclaimed!  But  vt  was 
over  the  graves  of  half  a  million  bodies 
that  the  great  commander,  beloved  now  by 
both  sides,  said,  "Let  us 'have  peace."  It 
was  in  the  blood  of  a  million — ^North  and 
South — that  the  final  interpretation  of  lib- 
eir»ty  was  written  into  the  Constitution, 
and  the  home  guard  and  officials  and  min- 
isters and  editO'i"s,  the  loyal  to  their  views, 
and  honorable  in  their  way.  are  forgotten 
in  the  iincreasing  splendor  of  the  faxne  of 
the  men  who  sitopped  bullets  with,  their 
bodies  in  the  dark  old  diays  of  SLxty-one 
and  two  and  three  and  four  and  five. 

Nationial  and  state  pen&don  laws,  sol- 
diers' homes,  battle-flags  in  the  capitols, 
buittons  red,  white  and  blue,  and  bronze, 
statutes  in  miarble,  blue  and  gr»ay  to- 
gerther,  speak,  and  will  always  speak,  of 
them  in  eulogy 

And  as  the  seasons  come  and  go,  we  and 
our  children  and  their  children  will  thatch 


The  Mercies  of  God 
86 

their  graves  witli  flowers,  and  chisel  inito 
graniite  and  cast  in  bronze  the  ntameis  of 
the  bodies  that  were  offered  a  living  sac- 
rifice to  education,  to  conscience,  and  to 
liberty. 

Heroic  Southierners  lie  abouit  us  in  their 
shrouds  of  gra^^  and  yonder  in  my  be- 
loved Nortihland  lie  the  Boys  in  Blue. 

They  fought  as  true  men  fight  till  the 
light  failed,  and  a  mtan  is  a  coward  who 
would  deny  the  loyalty  or  dim  the  fame  of 
either  side.  The  fittest  truth  survived, 
thanks  to  God  alone! 

So  lett  them  rest;  in  honor  and  in  pe'ace, 
and  leit  us  carry  on  this  war  as  tliey  did 
that,  until,  under  God,  the  soldiers  of  both 
sides  get  the  victory.  God  bless  the  old 
Dominion!  God  bless  the  Church  every- 
where! God  curse  the  liquor  traffic  now, 
for  Jesus'  sake.    Amen. 


"like  a  Zx^C 


**  Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in  the  counsel 
of  the  ungodly,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners, 
nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful,  but  his  delight 
is  in  the  law  of  the  lyOrd,  and  in  His  law  doth  he 
meditate  day  and  night.  And  he  shall  be  like  a  tree 
planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  that  bringeth  forth  his 
fruit  in  his  season  ;  his  leaf  also  shall  not  wither,  and 
whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper.  The  ungodly  are 
not  so,  but  are  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth 
away. 

"  Therefore  the  ungodly  shall  not  stand  in  the 
judgment,  nor  sinners  in  the  congregation  of  the 
righteous.  For  the  lyOrd  knoweth  the  way  of  the 
righteous  ;  but  the  way  of  the  ungodly  shall  perish." 

^T  has  been  discovered  that  David  was 
not  the  author  of  the  first  Psalm. 
It  is  at  least  equally  certain  that 
he  v^^as. 
It  does  not  much  ma>tter,  it  is  not  the 
kind  of  thing  to  greiatly  add  to  or  diminish 
his  fame.  (Somebody  wrote  it;  it  is  very 
old,  and  so  simple  as  to  both  form  and 
substance,  that  it  seems  to  me  that  I 
should  have  written  something  very  like  it 
myself,  if  no  one  else  had  done  it. 

And  the  decided  weight  of  opinion  is, 
that  whoever  wrote  it  did  so  by  the  inspir- 
ation of  God,  and  I  reckon  that  is  so. 
Whatever  definition  of  inspiration  be  ac- 
cepted, for  it  would  be  Lard  to  find  one, 

87 


**Like  a  Tree'' 
88 

learned  or  simple,  who  would  not  puit  his 
linger  on  that  stickful  of  poetic  prose  amd 
say,  "Chance  or  law  or  miracle,  that  is 
right,  that  is  reliable,  that  is  true,  that 
will  do  to  tie  to."  At  any  rate,  this  church 
imputes  to  it  absolutely  verity  and  accepts 
it  unequivocally  as  the  very  word  of  God, 
and  in  the  most  earnest  circles  of  church 
work  it  would  greatly  detra.ct  froon  one's 
usefulness,  if  not  destro-y  it  altogether, 
even  to  express  a  doubt  upon  the  subject. 

*  *  •}«• 

And  so,  because  I  prize  this  hearing  and 
wou?d  set  every  step  of  my  thought  in  a 
sure  place  today  and  bar  out  of  this  hour 
any  possible  personal  vagary,  I  propose  to 
you  that,  as  you  have  oiften  seen  a  tailor 
lay  a  pattern  upon  a  piece  of  cloth,  we  lay 
this  ancient,  accepted,  evident,  true,  in- 
spired Scripture  upon  our  politics,  and 
cut  it  out  and  wear  it  at  the  next  election, 
as  the  toga  virilis  of  our  Christian  citizen- 
ship. Wear  it,  I  say,  for  it  matters  very 
little  how  admirable  the  cut  of  one's  piety 
is  if  he  takes  it  off  in  the  polling-booth,  as 
men  take  off  their  overcoats  indoors,  for 
fear  of  no»t  "feeling"  them  when  they  come 
out  into  the  open  air. 

*  *  * 

It  is  a  "narrow-guage"  psalm.    Its  si- 


Or    r  '. 


**Likc  a  "Xttz** 
89 

lence  as  to  any  corrupt  contemporary 
money  system,  might  be  objected  to,  by  a 
superficial  mind  with  bolting  tendencies, 
as  in  the  nature  of  sanction  of  conspiracies 
of  banks  or  soime  such  thing.  And  I  can 
see  how,  possibly,  its  use  of  the  masculine 
noun,  man,  might  seem  to  some  extreme 
feminine  sensitiveness  a  slight  to  woman. 
But  these  infirmities  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures we  shall  have  to  put  up  with,  in  view 
of  the  general  good  character  of  the  Book. 
«  ♦  » 

T  will  tell  you  frankly  that  with  such 
very  moderate  ability  as  I  can  bring  to 
bear  upon  the  money  question  of  today,  I 
am  persuaded  to  favor  the  present  gold 
standard,  upon  grounds  of  the  most  ele- 
mentary honesty,  but  I  think  him  a  most 
noisome  and  pestilential  bigot  who  keeps 
crying  '^blatherskite!"  to  silver  advocates, 
or  saying  that  there  is  no  reapectable  or 
honorable  argument  upon  the  silver  side. 

And  I  am  in  favor  of  Woman  Suffrage 
upon  grounds  of  a,  b,  c,  decency.  My  vsdfe 
is  married  to  a  wanderer,  and  is  the 
mother  of  three  tall,  straight  men,  and,  in 
the  natural  division  of  our  labor,  her  place 
seems  where  her  heart  is,  in  her  home, 
while  we  men  do  the  voting. 

But  whenever,  as  wife,  mother,  Chris- 


**Likz  a  Tree'* 
90 

tian,  citizen,  she  may  deem  It  well  for  her 
to  add  the  ballot  to  the  gentle  enginery  of 
her  power,  we  four  stand  pledged,  by  every 
homespun  chivalry,  to  champion  her  right 
to  it,  against  the  world.  But  I  confess  to 
a  ceritain  gentlemanly  Christian  languor 
when  I  hear  that  party  platforms  which 
emit  the  subject  are  to  be  deemed  an  in- 
sult to  our  Christian  womanhood. 
*  *  -jt 

But  Christian  citizenship  is  new  and 
strange  to  many,  and  must  deal  with  poli- 
tics in  its  elementary  forms  at  first,  and 
while  each  of  these  questions,  money,  suf- 
frage, tariff,  direct  legislation,  etc.,  is 
worthy  of  the  time  and  thought  of  any 
man,  yet  neither  one  of  them  is  funda- 
mental; each  is,  as  yet,  involved,  unre- 
duced tO'  distinctively  moral  terms,  and 
unready,  by  so  much  or  so  little,  for  solu- 
tion. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  question  of  the 
liquor  traffic  is  already  reduced  to  a  sim- 
ple equation,  from  which  the  reduction  of 
a  single  election  day  will  suffice  to  give 
the  value  of  "X"— -the  Cross  of  Christ  upon 
a  freeman's  ballot-slip. 

•K>  «  * 

An  election  is  an  example  in  division; 
the  voting  body  is  the  dividend,  the  issue 


"'Like  a  Tree'' 
91 

is  the  divisor,  if  it  be  single,  the  quotient 
will  be  simple  and  final;  if  it  be  a  poly- 
nomial, the  answer  will  be  but  another 
problem  as  difficult  as  the  fir-"*.  The  one 
bright  spo.t  in  the  sky  of  practical  poli- 
tics today  is  that  the  people  have  com- 
pelled the  panties  to  form  a  campaigTi 
upon  single  issues. 

*  *  * 

The  choice  of  divisors  is  one  of  three, 
an  amiable  medley,  the  measure  of  a  dol- 
lar, and  "the  measure  of  a  man."  What 
the  c^hurch  will  get  out  of  this  election, 
depends  upon  what  she  divides  by.  If  she 
divide  by  a  medley  she  will  get  confusion 
more  or  less  hopeful;  if  she  divide  Dy 
money  she  will  get  money;  and  if  she  di- 
vide by  manhood,  she  will  get  manhood. 

*'  God,  give  us  men;  a  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith,  and  ready  hands. 

Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill; 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  can  not  buy; 

Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will; 
Men  who  have  honor,  men  who  will  not  lie; 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagog 
And  scorn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking; 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 
In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking. 
For  while  the  rabble,  with  their  thumb-worn  creeds, 
Their  loud  profession,  and  their  little  deeds. 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife  — lo! 

Freedom  weeps,  wrong  rules  the  land,  and  waiting  Justice 
sleeps." 


**Ukc  a  Trce^' 
92 

I  do  not  say  that  any  of  the  great  econ- 
omic questions  are  without  the  purview  of 
this  psalm,  but,  going  out  to  meet  them 
with  no  weapon  but  "the  sword  of  the  spir- 
it" 3  cannot  clearly  see  where  to  strike — 
at  gold  or  silver  or  tariff  or  the  rest — to 
maim  the  wrong  or  kill  it. 

*  *  * 

But  the  liquor  traffic  is  not  economics, 
but  treason,  overt,  insolent,  bloody  as  the 
shambles,  and  black  as  the  lees  of  mid- 
night. I  hate  it,  and  when  I  think  of  it, 
all  the  voices  of  memory,  the  words  of  the 
Book,  and  every  fibre  of  my  soul  and  body 
become  a  seething,  unreasoning  mob,  and 
cry,  "Kill!" 

«  «  « 

T  would  not  ask  you  to  accept  this  red- 
hot,  lashing  fever  of  my  blood  as  any  ar- 
gument. I  have  eaten  hell-ashes  until  my 
minJ  is  alkaline  and  cuts  up  the  unctuous 
lubricants  of  calm  and  decorous  debate, 
and  spoils  the  play  of  thought.  Perhaps 
there  may  be  something  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  drink,  for  all  my  hatred  of  it. 

*  *    4f 

I  will  not  offer  you  the  testimony  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union; 
most  of  those  women  have  been  chained 
by  the  implacable  tyranny  of  their  own 


**Likc  a  Tree'* 
93 

love  to  the  Caucasus  of  drink,  with  bosoms 
bared  to  the  beaks  and  claws  of  licensed 
and  protected  vultures,  and  shame  and 
wounds  have  made  them  hypochondriacal 
— may  be.  Let  us  have  something*  level- 
headed and  dispassionate. 

*  *  * 

William  Ewart  Gladstone!  stand  up  and 
speak  to  these  young  people!  What  about 
the  liquor  traffic?  "Gentlemen,  we  need 
not  give  ourselves  any  ti*ouble  about  the 
revenue,  the  question  or  revenue  must 
never  stand  in  the  way  of  needed  reform. 
Besides,  with  a  sober  population,  not  wast- 
ing their  earnings,  I  shall  know  where  to 
obtain  the  revenue." 

*  *    4f 

Coleridge,  Lord  Chief  Justice  o.f  Eng- 
land! What  about  the  liquor  traffic? 
"There  is  scarcely  a  crime  before  me  that 
is  not  directly  or  indirectly  caused  by 
strong  drink." 

*  *  # 

The  United  States  Supreme  Court!  stand 
up  in  your  robes  and  speak!  What  about 
the  liquor  traffic?  "It  is  not  necessary  to 
array  the  appalling  statistics  of  misery, 
pauperism,  and  crime  which  have  their 
origin  in  the  use  and  abuse  of  ardent 
spirits.     The   police   power,   which  is   ex- 


**Like  a  Tree" 
94 

elusive  in  the  states,  is  competent  to  the 
correction  of  these  great  evils,  and  all 
measures  of  restraint  and  prohibition 
necessary  to  effect  that  purpose  are  with- 
in the  scope  of  that  authority,  and  if  a 
loss  of  revenue  should  accrue  to  the  United 
States  from  a  diminished  consumption  of 
ardent  spirits,  she  will  be  a  gainer  a  thou- 
sandfold in  the  health,  wealth  and  happi- 
ness of  the  people." 

*  *  * 

The  New  York  Tribune!  What  aboiit 
the  s-aloon?  "It  is  the  heaviest  clog  upon 
progress  and  the  deepest  disgrace  of  the 
nineteenth  century." 

*  *  * 

The  London  Times!  W^hat  about  the 
liquor  traffic?  "Drink  baffles  us,  con- 
founds us,  shames  us,  and  mocks  us  a't 
every  point,  and  the  public  house  holds  on 
its  triumphant  course." 

*  *  * 

General  Boo.th"!  What  about  the  liquor 
traffic?  "Nine-'tenths  of  our  poverty, 
squalor,  vice  and  crime  spring  from  this 
poisonous  tap-root.  Society  by  its  habits, 
customs,  and  laws,  has  gveased  the  slope, 
down  which  these  poor  creatures  slide  to 
perdition." 


**Likc  a  Tree'' 
95 

Abraham  Lincoln!  What  about  the  li- 
quor traffic?  "The  liquor  traffic  is  a  can- 
cer in  society,  eating  out  its  vitals  and 
threatening  destruction,  and  all  attempts 
to  regulate  it  will  not  only  prove  abortive, 
but  will  aggravate  the  evil.  There  must 
be  no  more  attempts  to  regulate  the  can- 
cer, it  must  be  eradicated,  not  a  root  must 
be  left  behind,  for  until  this  is  done,  all 
classes  must  continue  in  danger  of  becom- 
ing victims  of  strong  drink." 
»  *  * 

But  may  not  tliese  be  ttie  unconsidered 
edicts  of  fallible  men  and  overburdened 
courts.  Yes:  I  shall  not  ask  you  to  rest 
on  what  they  say.  But  I  do  "thank  God, 
and  take  courage"  as  I  remember  that 
though  Lincoln  died  and  his  party  with 
him,  thirty  years  ago,  there  survives  to 
this  betrayed  and  plundered  people  an 
incorruptible  judiciary,  in  the  main.  But 
it  ought  to  be  high  treason  for  the  confi- 
dence men  wlio  "do"  the  people,  in  the 
dominant  politics,  to  call  their  organized 
conspiracies  "the  party  of  Jefferson,"  "the 

party  of  Lincoln,"  God  save  the  mark! 
*  *  * 

Nc  sore-hearted  appeals  shall  war^)  your 
judgment  here;  no  outraged  and  indignant 
womanhood    shall    obtrude   her   tears   to 


**Like  a  Tree'' 
96 

stampede  your  sympathies;  let  stricken 
childhood  wail  on  through  the  starless, 
voiceless  midnight  of  its  wrongs,  unheed- 
ed; let  statesmanship  find  audience  else- 
where tonight.  Upon  the  certified  record 
of  the  Church  herself,  and  his  own  admis- 
sions to  his  inner  consciousness,  I  will  in- 
dict the  Christian  voter,  and  on  the  third 
of  next  November,  let  him  plead  "guilty" 
or  "not  guilty." 

*  *  * 

But  may  not  the  church  be  wrong? 
Yes,  but  nothing  on  this  planet  is  so  apt  to 
be  right  as  she!  By  the  word  of  Jesus 
Christ  she  holds  her  commission;  His  own 
disciples  were  her  first  ministers;  His 
mother.  His  brothers  and  sisters  molded 
her  early  life;  her  life  has  been  one  long 
contemplation  of  His  perfections;  she.  is 
the  mother  of  interpretation  and  criticism, 
old  and  new  alike;  the  greatest  heights  of 
science  are  but  spurs  of  the  main  range 
of  her  thought;  God  help  this  world,  if  she 
cannot  be  trusted  by  her  own  sons! 

*  *  * 

But  does  her  word  bind  us?  JNo,  our  own 
word  binds  us.  We  have  taken  her  vows 
upon  us  and  pledged  ourselves  in  the  blood 
of  the  New  Testament,  to  love,  honor,  and 
cherish  her.    You  revere  her,  and  I  do,  but 


•*Uke  a  Tree*' 
97 

it  is  by  no  sentiment  that  I  exhort  you. 
My  business  with  you  has  to  do  with  coan- 
nion  honesty  and  nothing  more  nor  less. 
*  *  * 

I  open  here  before  you,  the  official  record 
of  your  General  Assembly,  listen — I  read 
extracts;  but  every  word  of  context  in- 
tensifies the  meaning:  *'To  license  the  li- 
quor traffic  is  a  sin  against  God,  and  a 
crime  against  humanity,  being  morally 
wrong  it  can  never  be  made  legally  right, 
and  the  time  has  fully  come  when  Chris- 
tians should  unite  their  efforts,  regardless 
of  previous  affiliations,  for  its  suppression. 
No  political  party  has  a  right  to  expect, 
nor  ought  it  to  receive,  the  vote  of  a  Chris- 
tian, so  long  as  it  stands  co-mmitted  to  the 
license  policy  or  refuses  to  put  itself  upon 
record  in  open  hostility  to  the  saloon." 

I  £,peak  no  compliment,  I  make  no  de- 
fense, but  take  it  as  I  find  it,  and  ask  no 
quarter  when  I  assert,  that  to  cast  a  bal- 
lot for  the  Democratic  party  in  the  coming 
election  is  to  cast  a  stone  at  the  church. 

I  open  the  Bible,  put  my  finger  upon  the 
First  Psalm,  and  remind  you  again  that 
the  church  says:  "That  is  the  handwriting 
of  divinity,"  and  then  I  weigh  my  words 
when  I  aver  that  he  who  casts  a  Kepubli- 
can  ticket  at  the  national  election  repudi- 


I 


98 

ates  the  Word  of  God  and  insults  Him  to 
His  face.    Have  no  fear  that  I  shall  speak 
of  party  politics — ^this  is  party  religion. 
*  *  * 

Some  one  will  say,  and  truly,  that  the 
liquor  traffic  has  become  a  question  of 
?nere  method,  but  methods  are  principles 
in  motion,  and  the  First  Psalm  presents  the 
whole  rationale  of  Christian  method,  in  a 
simple  song — how  to  walk,  how  to  stand, 
how  to  sit,  how  to  meditate,  how  to  grow, 
how  to  prosper;  and  the  music  of  it  will  fill 
the  whole  earth  when  the  people  sing  it 
with  a  ballot  box  accompaniment.  That 
portion  of  the  psalmody  requires  an  in- 
strument. 

¥f  *  * 

I  presume  I  shall  be  within  the  truth  and 
the  proprieties  of  this  occasion  in  saying, 
that  the  saloon-keeper  is  an  ungodly  man. 
"God  is  not  in  all  his  thoughts.  His  ways 
are  always  grievous,  his  mouth  is  full  of 
cursing  and  deceit  and  fraud;  under  his 
tongue  is  mischief  and  vanity.  He  sit- 
teth  in  the  lurking-places  of  the  villages, 
in  the  secret  places  doth  he  murder  the  in- 
nocent, his  eyes  are  privily  set  against  the 
poor.  He  lieth  in  wait  secretly  as  a  lion 
in  h5s  den;  he  lieth  in  wait  to  catch  the 
poor;    he   doth   catch   the   poor  when   he 


**Likc  a  Tree'' 
99 

ilraweth  him  into  his  net.  He  croucheth 
and  humbleth  himself  that  the  poor  may 
fall  by  his  strong  ones.  He  hath  said  in 
h:s  heart,  God  hath  forgotten." 

What  has  he  to  say  for  his  business? 
Upon  what  basis  does  he  calculate  his 
politics?  To  what  measure  does  he  lay 
the  lines  of  his  citizenship?  He  says: 
"Men  always  drank  and  always  will  drink." 
*'Tf  T  do  not  sell,  somebody  else  will." 
"There  is  a  revenue  in  it."  "It  is  a  person- 
al matter  and  moral  suasion  is  the  only 
I  emedy."  "Close  the  low  dives  by  increas- 
ing the  license  and  make  the  saloons  re- 
spectable." "Regulation  is  an  eternal 
principle."  "Keep  the  ques<tion  out  of 
politics."  "We  are  in  sympathy  with  all 
wise  and  we''l-directed  efforts  to  prevent 
the  evils  of  intemperance.'*  "Public  senti- 
ment will  not  tolerate  a  Prohibition  law," 
and  more,  but  all  to  the  same  effect,  and  so, 
year  In  and  year  out,  upon  election  day — 
the  one  day  of  the  calendar  when  men  are 
equal — the  average  Christian  voter,  like  a 
dreary  parrot  perched  upon  a  party  boss's 
thumb,  sometimes  right  side  up,  sometimes 
upside  down,  echoes  the  blasrphemy  and 
takes  up  the  damnable  parody  and 
chants  it  through,  to  the  dismay  of  the 
church  and  the  joy  and  satisfaction  of  her 


**Like  a  Tree^' 
JOO 

enemies:  "Blessed  is  the  practical  man 
that  walketh  as  erect  as  possible,  in  the 
counsels  of  the  ungodly,  atfiliates  with  the 
iinclean  in  politics,  to  control  the  soap 
ra^arket,  and  confesses  spiritual  insolvency, 
to  speculate  in  his  own  dishonored  pledges, 
for  the  profit  of  a  party  pool  that  scorns 
the  inconvenient  virtue  that  would  do 
right  all  days  alike." 

4t  *  * 

"Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh  not  in 
tlie  counsels  of  the  ungodly." 

All  the  triune  beatitudes  of  the  First 
Psalm  have  to  do  with  action.  In  Chris- 
tian citizenship  aresolution  shows  how 
the  resolver  feels,  a  ballot  shows  where 
he  stands.  "Blessed  is  the  man  that  stand- 
eth  not  in  the  way  of  sinners."  Under  our 
system,  a  party  is  a  voter's  "way"  in  poli- 
tics. We  stand  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
a  national  election;  political  virtue  will -be 
in  it  only  as  a  voice  and  a  protest.  The 
honor  of  the  nation  is  not  at  stake  in  the 
contest  over  money  standards;  that  is  a 
sparring  match  of  discredited  pugilists, 
each  of  whom  has,  in  advance,  sold  the 

fight  to  the  saloon. 

*  *  * 

Three  ways  are  open,  where  a  Christian 
voter  may  take  a  stand:  Republican,  Dem- 


**Like  a  Tree" 
JOI 

ocrat  and  Prohibition.  I  omit  the  Popu- 
list and  Naitional  parties  in  order  not  to 
cumber  my  illustration,  but  I  do  so  with- 
out prejudice  to  them.  To  be  a  Republi- 
can this  fall  is,  at  the  best,  to  stand  for 
the  honor  of  the  gold  dollar,  as  to  be  a 
Democrat  is  to  stand  for  the  justice  of  a 
silver  dollar.  To  be  a  Prohibitionist  is  to 
stand  for  the  integrity  of  Christian  man- 
hood, the  honor  of  the  church,  and  the 
justice  of  Almighty  God  in  American  pol- 
itics. Where  are  you  going  to  stand?  I 
assume  that  there  is  no  one  in  this  audi- 
ence so  weak  in  his  Christianity  or  bo 
mean  in  his  citizeniship  as  to  run  away 
from  the  election. 

Stand  here  with  me  upon  this  mountain 
top  and  see  the  marshaling  of  the  hosts 
upon  the  plain.  Two  hundred  ,and  forty 
thousand  saloons  belch  forth  their  self- 
destroying,  promise-breaking  home-defil- 
ing, pauper-breeding,  wife-beating  clans, 
and  they  form  in  two  sections  and  march 
by  with  all  the  jeweled,  painted,  ragged 
harlotry  of  the  nation  following  on — the 
stock-jobbers,  and  men  who  corner  gold 
and  silver,  coal  and  light,  and  food — the 
gamblers,  confidence  men,  vagrants,  and 
criminals   of  low   and   high  degree;    the 


J02 

office-seekers,  the  jackals  of  the  vicious 
classes,  move  to  their  places.  Where? 
Half  to  the  Democratic  party,  whose  lead- 
er, a  clean,  brave,  honest,  mistaken  Pres- 
byterian, bears  the  flag  of  Jefferson,  sus- 
tained, advised,  and  cheered  by  Tammanj^ 
Hall,  Hill,  Gorman,  and  the  rest.  Half  to 
the  Republican  party,  led  by  a  smug  and 
wil>  Methodist,  vs^hose  hands  are  held  up 
by  Greenhut,  of  the  National  Whisky 
Trust,  Saloon-keeper  Cox,  of  "Dead  Man*s 
Alley,"  the  Platts,  Quays,  Braytons,  and 
other  despicable  but  pow^erful  procurers  of 
that  ilk  in  darkest  politics. 

I  say  no  word  in  personal  disrespect  of 
these  candidates;  but  they  stand  "in  the 
way  of  sinners,"  they  are  "in  the  hands  of 
their  friends,"  and  their  friends  comprise 
the  scum  and  crime  of  cities,  states,  and 
nations,  and  they  expect  to  win  by  standing 
"in  the  counsel  of  the  ungodly,"  and  by 
the  contributions  of  the  agglomerated 
treasons  of  the  body  politic.  And  for  my- 
self, I  freely  say  that  rather  than  choose 
between  them,  in  that  company,  and  upon 
that  conceded  and  stipulated  bankruptcy 
of  principle,  I  would  strip  off  my  right  of 
franchise  as  a  filthy  rag  and  voluntarily 
become  "a  man  without  a  country." 


"Like  a  Tree'' 
103 

In  politics,  a  man's  "counsel"  is  the  way- 
he  reasons,  his  party  is  the  "way"  he  goes, 
his  ballot  is  the  "way"  he  stands,  and  the 
sum  of  them  all,  is  the  way  he  foots  up 
in  the  long  run — his  seat  of  government — 
his  capital.  He  occupies  it  by  election  to 
office  or  by  elecl:ing  some  one  else. 

*  *  «{• 

"Blessed  is  the  man  that  siitteth  noit  in 
the  seat  of  the  scornful,"  but  I  dare  to  say 
to  you  that  the  winning  candidate  in  this 
campaign  will  take  his  seat  by  virtue  of 
his  having  scorned  the  voice  of  God  and  of 
the  church. 

*  *  * 

The  peril  of  the  republic  is  tha/t  Con- 
gress is  no  deliberative  body  "according 
to  the  counsel"  of  the  godly  or  the  patri- 
otic, but  a  nest  of  schemes  where  agree- 
m-ent  is  impossible  save  at  a  price  paid 
down  in  party  counters,  or  some  local 
cr  personal  interest  which,  disregarding 
downright  loyalty,  says  covertly,  "You 
vote  for  my  bill  and  I  vote  for  yours,"  to 
the  glory  of  jobbery.  Eight eousness  is 
unthought  of  there,  save  as  an  ad  captan- 
dum  incident  in  debate;  while  in  munici- 
pal government,  no  man,  with  rare  excep- 
tions, can  get  or  hold  a  seat  without  the 
condition  of  holding  godliness,  as  defined 


**Likz  a  Tree'* 
J  04 

by  the  church,  in  utter  scorn.  The  United 
States  Senator  who  said  that  "the  Ser- 
n?on  on  the  Mount  in  politics  is  an  iride- 
scent dream"  spoke  literal  truth  according 
to  his  light  and  the  practice  of  the  Sen- 
ate. 

Send  the  most  careful  newspaper  re- 
porter to  Mr.  Bryan  to  ask  him  what  his 
administration  will  do  about  the  saloon 
in  the  event  he  wins,  and  he  will  tell  you 
frankly:  "Nothing,  I  am  opposed  to  sump- 
tuary legislation.'* 

Send  to  Mr.  McKinley  the  same  question, 
and  he  will  say,  "I  decline  to  be  imter- 
viewed."  Is  it  as  bad  as  that?  Yes,  worse, 
for  if  they  were  to  answer  according  to 
the  counsel  of  the  godly,  they  would  be 
execrated  by  their  parties  as  fools  and 
traitors.  But  I  do  rejoice  to  know  that 
there  is  a  candidate  in  the  field,  the  peer 
of  either  of  the  others  in  body  and  in 
brain,  and  a.  full  century  beyond  them 
both  in  business  standing  and  ability,  who, 
if  you  ask  him,  "What  will  your  adminis- 
tration do  about  the  saloon  in  case  of 
your  election?"  will  say,  promptly  as 
thunder  follows  lightning:  "We  will  kill 
it,  bv  the  grace  of  God,  and  divide  its  an- 
nual income  of  $1,000,000,000  among  the 
honest  industries  of  the  land." 


**Likc  a  Ttcc*^ 
105 

But  what  would  the  one-idead  Prohibi- 
tionists do  about  money?  That  is  a  per- 
fectly fair  question,  and  I  will  answer  it: 
We  would  hold  a  session  of  Congress,  in  the 
name  of  God  and  home  and  country,  with- 
out respect  to  sections,  classes,  or  party 
condition,  and  thresh  out  the  money  argn- 
ment  in  sober,  clean,  loyal,  debate,  and  do 
rig-ht  about  it.  But  if  Bryan  be  elected 
will  there  not  be  a  panic ?Yes,  but  it  will  be 
a  petty,  jumpting--3ack  thing,  compared  to 
the  perennial  panic  of  the  liquor  traffic, 
that  swamps  the  entire  volume  of  our  cur- 
lency  every  year,  and  gives  back  to  civili- 
zation a  quid  pro  quo  of  vice,  disease,  and 
crime,  unmixed  with  any  good.  But  if 
McKinley  be  elected  is  there  not  danger 
of  a  revolution?  Yes,  but  it  will  be  light 
comedy  compared  to  the  ceaseless  murder 
and  pillage  of  tTie  saloon. 

But  is  it  not  a  waste  of  power  to  vote 
for  the  narrow  righteousness  of  Prohibi- 
tion this  year?  No,  it  is  the  most  hopeful 
and  most  wise  expenditure  of  power  in 
s'ght.  You  can  do  nothing  for  McKinley 
or  Bryan  or  gold  or  silver  without  you  can 
carry  a  m'ajority  of  the  electoral  college, 
that  means  the  polling  of  say,  7,000,000 
votes.  While  on  the  other  hand,  1,000,000 
votes     for    Joshua     Levering — without     a 


**Lifce  a  Tree'' 

J06 

member  of  Congress  or  an  elector — ^will 
elect  our  issue  to  the  next  place  upon  the 
calendar  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  first 
campaign  of  the  twentieth  century,  some 
party,  or  all  parties,  will  fly  David's  flag 
and  cover  the  church  with  glory. 
*  *  * 

Young  men,  as  nearly  as  I  can  under- 
stand my  own  heart,  I  do  not  come  before 
you  as  a  partizan,  but  we  must  look  at  the 
case  as  it  is,  and  you  must  be  honest,  br-ave, 
patriotic,  and  clean.  It  is  the  Word  of 
God  I  preach  to  you.  "Blessed  is  the  man 
whose  delight  is  in  the  law  of  the  Lord, 
and  in  his  law  doth  he  meditate  day  and 
night," — that  is,  in  the  activity  and  hard 
practicalities  of  living  no  less  than  in  the 
hours  of  worship  and  repose. 

But  is  it  practicable?  Will  it  work? 
Will  it  win?  Listen.  "He  shall  be  like  a  tree. 
"The  counsel  of  the  ungodly"  says,  "Bet- 
ter be  a  vine  and  cling  to  some  grand  old 
p'le  and  hide  its  scars  and  rotting  but- 
tresses, and  eat  its  decayed  glory,  and  nest 
i+^-s  bats  and  owls,  and  weave  your  clean, 
young,  lusty  life  about  its  parting  seams  to 
shield  it  like  the  vdcker  on  a  demijohn." 
>To,  no,  "like  a  tree,"  no  crawling,  no  veil- 
ing; growing,  wide  open  to  God  looking 
down,  wide  open  to  men  looking  up.     The 


"Like  a  Ttcz*' 
107 

counsel  of  the  ungodly  says:  "If  you  want 
to  be  a  tree  at  least  adapt  yourself  to  your 
habitat,  and  take  the  direcjtion  of  your 
^Towth  according  to  the  slant  of  political 
progress,  albeit  oblique  to  God,  until  the 
world  gets  level;  Be  relatively  honest — 
.stand  by  the  G.  O.  P."  Never!  On  the 
contrary,  let  your  motto  be  U.  P. — United 
Presbyterian,  U.  P.— UP. 

"Like  a  tree  planted,"  not  potted,  nor 
heeled  in,  nor  hung  up  by  the  roots  to 
be  set  out  in  the  spring — not  hanging  by 
one  root  in  the  crevice  of  the  rock,  "plant- 
ed at  the  meeting  of  the  streams." 
*  *  * 

Bear  with  me  a  moment,  you  must  think 
this  thought  through.  I  lay  my  hand  up- 
on this  Bible  and  say,  "There  is  a  river, 
the  streams  whereof  shall  make  glad  the 
cfty  of  God,  the  holy  place  of  the  taber- 
nacles of  the  most  high.  God  is  in  the  midsit 
of  her;  she  shall  not  be  moved." 

Law,  medicine,  sofciology,  political  econ- 
omy, flowing  on  in  gathering  he'adv/ay 
from  their  mysterious  sources,  meet  the 
voice  of  the  church  and  the  teachings  of 
this  book  at  the  saloon.  The  political 
party,  existent  or  yet  to  be,  that  is  plant- 
ed there,  shall  run  its  roots  wide  and  deep 
in  an  exhaustless  soil,  and  as  the  roots  in- 


**Likc  a  Tree*' 
JOS 

creiase  and  hold,  the  branches  will  spread 
high  and  wide  to  correspond. 

*  «•  * 

"That  bringieth  forth  his  fruit  in  his 
yeeason."  Whose  season?  That  of  the  man 
who  planted  it?  No,  no,  the  tree's  season 
— an  orang-e  tree  brings  forth  fruit  in  or- 
ange season,  that  is,  God's  season  for 
oranges.  "His  leaf  also  shall  not  wither'* 
— evergreen,  blooming,  growing,  bearing 
renewing — day  by  day. 

"And  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  pros- 
per," -and  if  that  does  not  mean  victory^ 
there  is  a  lie  in  the  First  Psalm. 


,  i3  H  ^  ; 

Or  y.^'L 


Ck  Ifiange  f inOer. 

*'This  kind  cometh  not  out  but  by  prayer  and 
fasting." 

a  THOUGHT  of  loveliness  and  good- 
ness and  happiness  and  of  a  ter- 
rific sorrow  starts  out  of  the  shad- 
owy edges  of  this  hour  and  bars 
the  way  and  will  not  let  me  pass  to  the 
main  line  until  I  speak  to  it. 

•  «  # 

An  agitator's  life  is  well  nigh  destitute 
of  what  we  call  amenities;  but  may  be 
very  rich  in  friendships — not  in  the  num- 
ber of  them  certainly,  but  the  quality. 
Mine  has  been  so  blest  and  it  involves 
nothing  invidious  to  the  others  for  me  to 

speak  of  one  of  them  just  here. 

*  *  * 

Ever  since  I  came  upon  the  platform,  my 
eyes  have  swept  this  sea  of  faces,  looking 
for  a  friend  of  yours  and  mine.  At  rapid 
intervals  I  recollected  that  she  could  not 
be  among  you,  yet  in  spite  of  what  my  rea- 
son said  to  me,  1  kept  the  search. 

She  was  one  of  my  children  according  to 
the  gospel  of  prohibition;  her  face  was 
beautiful;  her  faith  was  straight  as  an  ar- 
row and  her  Christian  life  was  like  a  low, 
sweet  psalm  upon  the  quiet  water  when  the 
sun  is  down. 


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no 

Last  year  at  Indianapolis  we  sat  to- 
gether through  that  wonderful  meeting 
while  her  husband  was  pouring  out  upon 
us  all,  his  noble  eloquence  about  "The  Sep- 
arated Life;" — God  comfort  him,  he  has 
learned  some  startling  meanings  of  it  since 
that  night. 

I  had  never  seen  her  so  wrought  upon, 
so  tense,  so  rapt.  She  worried  me  with  her 
bolt  uprightness — insensible  save  of  the 
man  who  spoke  and  Him  of  whom  he  spoke. 

In  the  confusion  of  the  breaking  up  she 
said  no  word  of  what  was  passing  in  lier 
mind.  We  went  our  ways;  and  then  the 
news  came  that  she  had  gone  out  of  the 
darkness  into  everlasting  light. 

I  will  not  cheapen  the  memory  with  many 
words;  but  it  will  do  us  good  to  pause  a 
moment  on  the  threshhold  of  this  ugly 
theme  and  in  our  hearts  salute  the  "Sep- 
arated Life"  of  Comrade  Ella  Barnett  Kyle. 
*  *  * 

It  is  the  fourth  time  that  I  have  spoken 
to  an  International  Convention  of  the 
Young  People's  Christian  Union. 

In  so  far  as  plain  sincerity  entitles,  I 
might  expect — and  do  expect — the  com- 
mon recognition  due  to  any  well-meaning 
man;  but  for  the  distinguished  and  re- 
peated honor  of  an  important  place  upon 


The  Range  Findef 
tit 

this  program,  I  cannot  see,  much  as  I 
should  like  to,  any  personal  deserving,  or 
any  explanation,  save  only  that  certain 
reflex  of  fine  courtesy,  vs^hich  leads  w^ell 
bred  people  to  show^  extreme  politeness  to 
a  guest  w^ho  has  experienced  coarse  vul- 
garity at  the  hands  of  some  crude  or  weak 
member  of  the  family. 
*  *  * 

I  do  allow  myself  a  single  touch  of  pride, 
in  this,  that,  loving  ease,  I  have  been 
given  grace  to  keep  to  my  uncomfort- 
able furrow  cr<oisis-wilse  oif  ithe  public  semti- 
miemt,  while  the  s-miooth,  haird  tuinnipike  of 
expediency  w^as  'open  itio  me  ait  a  sm-adl  lex- 
pe^nise  of  truth  at  'tihe  tioll  galte  o<f  (the 
*''boiss,"  in  church  ainid  isitaite.  Thalt,  liovi'nig 
popularity,  I  have  been  gfiven  sitranlgth  tio 
fig^ht  rig^it  loin,  when  o-utclaislsed  anid  ov!e(r- 
miatched  ait  eivery  point;  a.nd  to  fighit  fair, 
when  miisunld'erfsltloiod  'au/d  hdsseid  alt  by  the 
very  men  w^ioisie  dieiseir.ted  p^oisitis  in  th,e 
breiajch  of  the  chunch  w^all,  I  trield  to  h/oM 
for  God  aind  hoim-e  and  counltiry;  anid  to 
**istiay  put,"  ^o-r  Jesus'  slake,  wihen  worsiteid, 
and  tiake  unstinted  punisihmenit  withlouit  a 
whine. 

I  have  done  whiat  I  could  to  prev^einit  thie 
ele-dtoral  disipeirsiion  o'f  t;he  Ohrisltilanis;  I 
iuave  off enjdad  no  brave  man ;  I  havie  s^pread 


The  Range  Finder 
ill 

the  news  oif  Jesus  Cbriist  tto  a  losit  church 
Bit  every  g^eneral  eleiotioa;  I  have  owned 
no  maisteir  buit  Him'seilf ;  mor  deserved  cem- 
sure  froon  any  friend  of  his;  I  hiave  floug-ht 
the  diragioai  of  the  liquor  tiraffic  wdtlh  all 
my  heartt  and  v^^ilth  all  my  mind  land  wuith 
ail  my  tstrengith  for  tein  yea,r&  and  more, 
withoult  so  much  ais  grazing  one  vile  wtart 
of  its  aocursied  liide,  becauise  it  lay  and  lies 
today — ^grunttiinig,  buit  siatisfied  and  safe, 
within  la  holHow  square  of  Ohristiain  vot- 
eDs,  who  loaithe  it,  but  defend  it,  beo'auise 
•they  think  ithey  have  to;  and  every  blow 
I  admied  at  'txJe  sialoon  wa(S  (pairnieid  by  the 
bayo'met  of  a  Ohrisitiain. 

I  hiave  cheered  the  thin,  white  lime  of 
prohibd'tioin,  and  shouted  the  ohundh's 
ch'aillemig'e,  to  the  chuir'ch's  mien,  so  lonig", 
thiait  a  raisiping  voice,  a  querelouis  tone  and 
th  eexia/g-g^erated  activity  oif  a  wonn-oult 
body  laisih/ed  by  a  itireleiss  will,  gelt  ftor  my 
mlndstry,  'ait  ithe  besit,  sipasms  of  kindnesis  in 
a  wotrld  of  hate. 

«  «  « 

You  hiave  been  my  best  friend's,  and  frfom 
my  iheiarit,  I  thamk  you  motre  than  wordia 
dan  tell;  buit,  borro'Wiing  an  elegiamlt  and 
iscripitunal  figure  from  your  chur'ch  presis, 
I  cofme  (now  to  buzz  myself  ouit  of  the  oinit- 
ment  and  fly  to  other  pots;   warning  the 


The  Range  Finder 
US 

squeamfiislh.  lapotheciary,  however,  t/hiat 
whalt  hias  seeimed  in  his  ol:fia.ctories  a  tairut, 
its  the  ozone  of  coming-  thunder  stoTms  oi 
civic  faith  'and  tru'th  aind  efforts  as  un- 
crediitaible  fto  me  ais  discreditable  to  him; 
:Sor,  thi's  siociety  ha.s  gone  for  prohibitiofn, 
"horse,  foot  and  dragons,"  thanks  to  no 
mia.n!  The  positern  dto'or  wdll  be  shut  by 
this  convention  and  any  man  who  ha.s  his 
nose  thecre  will  get  it  pinched;  and  be- 
cause of  my  unbounded  love  and  pride  ajnd 
confidence  in  you,  a;nd  of  miy  own  absolute 
insigrnifioauce  to  the  ou'toomie;  fr<om  to- 
ndg-ht  I  hold  myself  inieligiible  to  the  call  of 
future  "General  Committees,"  until,  per- 
haps, in  brig'hter  days  you  bid  me  co-me  to 
celebraite  with  you  the  time  when  the 
United  Presbyteriian  Ohurch  vsdll  hold  in 
honoir  mo  mia.n  who  would  rather  be  a 
menilal  in  Eg^ypt,  with  "a  sure  thkng-"  than 
a  prince  of  God  on  the  f  ron/tier. 
*  *  * 

And  for  tionig'hlt,  I  purpose  noithing"  miore 
aimbiitio»uis  thian  to  sound  in  your  eiars  oince 
mioire  the  »old  pitch  pipe  of  the  g'O'sipel,  and 
to  exhort  you  that  Avhaterer  the  heat  and 
stress  of  the  great  campaign,  you — of  all 
men — muislt  never  fail  to  carry  your  civic 
psalmody  in  the  key  of  Jesus  Christ. 


The  Range  Finder 
JJ4 

You  hiave  no  timie  tb  fol'lofw  ime  wool- 
ga.thard;nig:  Whalt,  wh©n,  wibere,  why, 
whethier  la  man  ©ug-lit  to  drink;  let  dtberis 
answer  if  'tlbey  can.  I  stand  uipon  the  cer- 
tiaimty  itha.t  by  bo-th  the  letter  and  t(he 
Sipirit  of  tihe  officia'l  aiction  of  the  church 
"The  liquor  'traffic  cam  never  be  licensed 
withouit  sin,"  anid  t'hait  "No  political  party 
is  enititled  t)o  expect  nor  ougtbt  it  fto  re- 
ceive the  vote  of  a  Chriatiain  mam,  so  long 
Q)s  it  s.tiandis  committed  tio  the  licemise  pol- 
icy or  refuses  to  put  i'tself  om  record  in  an 
altititude  of  open  hostility  to  the  s-aloon." 
■jfr  *  * 

Somie  oily  magnate  will  advise  you  thiat 
alithouigh  the  church  has  miade  thait  deicliar- 
attiom  and  irepea.f edly  confirmed  it,  tha't  it 
has  not  the  foirce  of  law  io  bind  an  indi- 
vidual, buit  I  tell  you  that  if  thait  resolu- 
tion stiaites  tftie  truth  and  the  righiteous- 
ness  in  the  case  it  has  ten  million  timee 
the  binding  force  of  any  formal  laiw  upom 
the  individual  conscience  and  conduct  of 
every  honoraible  man  in  the  connection, 
and  iit  dis  peittifoggimig  with  God  Almighty 
to  taike  to  the  cover  of  a  technicality  to 
shlirk  a  dtuity. 

*  *  * 

Think  of  your  Robinsons,  and  Kylets,  and 
McCriorys,  and  McGills,  amd  Wislharjts,  and 


The  Range  Finder 
115 

Hannlas,  amd  Euissells,  a.iid  Atcliiisonls,  and 
sudh,  inoisinig  thrcug^h  lexicoms  aind  pre<ie- 
de.n^is  to  find  auithioirity  to  decllare  rfig-hte- 
ousness,  and  do  wiriomg,  lat  the  ssaime  time! 
Shoick  yiou?  I  sbould  expect  so!  It  elhocks 
ane,  even  to  think  of  it  by  the  wtay  of  illus- 
tration. JS^evier  mind  the  shock!  Gat  the 
leiss'on  lamd  hold  it  for  your  life!  That, 
■When  a  straight  man  sei&s  (the  r^g^ht  of  a 
thing — -a  gift,  a  ciontraot  or  a  viotte — 'he  will 
do  it  thoug^h  eveTy  bell  of  panic  ring  him 

off. 

*  *  * 

What  is  night?  Is  that  what  you  want 
ito  kn'OfW?  Come  on,  then,  and  ait  that 
level  and  not  a  hair  below  it,  drift  with 
m:e  oncie  more  into  the  black  mountain  of 
the  liquor  pnoblem. 

*  *  * 

Some  of  yon  may  find  it  hard  to  give  at- 
tenition,  beeauise  the  suibjeat  doeis  n'oit 
appeal  to  yo^u,  but  it  is  impontamt  to  yoiu, 
one  amd  all.  It  is  appropriate  to  any  aiu- 
dienice  froim  the  nursery  to  the  eongreisis 
amd  I  ithink  that  if  *the  domeistic  bruit-cs 
could  hear  amd  und'e.risitiamd  me,  they  wouild 
be  gaithering  at  these  doors  and  winid'owis 
to  listen,  for  ithey  know  full  well  some  of 
the  meanings  of  my  minisitry;   and  vv^hem 


The  Range  Finder 

the  dhiurch  sliould  daist  me  off,  d'og«  omd 
hiorseis  would  take  mie  up. 

lit  conicerinis  society  -at  larg^e ;  for  like  (tftie 
fiox  beneaith  'tbe  Sparltan  soMier'is  dlouib- 
leit,  i't  teairs  her  very  heant  ouit,  bravely  as 
sihe  car  riles  it. 

It  aotnicennis  governiment :  for  it  fouls  the 
weils  fro'm  which  it  drawis  its  veiry  bre«a<th 
of  life,  daiiieis  its  title  to  itself,  viola^s  the 
de(aid,  piumders  tihe  Mvinig-  and  breeds  pre- 
naital  paiuperfs  and  crimiiQalis  to  peirplex  amid 
defeiait  (Lt. 

It  0on)cie/rns  capital,  foT  it  is  tlhie  iruainr- 
sprinlg"  of  arsion,  etmibezzleimenit,  mobs 
riot  anid  murder. 

It  concennis  labor:  for  iit  sia^ps  its 
stiremigith,  its  honoT  and  its  hope  umtil  iu- 
d'usitry  becoimes  a  g"alley  slave,  willing-  to 
take  its  pay  lin  b'lows  and  sweaty  ragis  and 
squal'or. 

It  concerns  the  church:  for  by  so  much 
ais  it  enjoys  islhe  suffers  loss. 

It  con'cernis  the  school:  foir  by  so  much 
ais  it  outrunis  it  in  the  race  for  power,  it 
converts  culture  into  crime,  anid  mtakes 
the  educated  the  dangerous  classes  to 
the  common  weal. 

It  Conjcerns  every  home:  fgr  it  is  a  denial 
of  its  every  sianotity  amid  a.n  insult  to  its 
beist  ideals. 


\. 


VAU- 


The  Range  Finder 
U7 


It  conicernis  love: — and  h'ow  in]a.ny  a  love 
atory  is  gomig-  throug-h  itis  fireit  cilia.pt6r  in 
this  convention — ^it  leeches  its  very  blood 
amid  leaves  beihind,  the  ashes  of  inexpressi- 
ble desolaitioins. 

It  concerns  the  land  nolt  o^nly,  but  the 
sea  as  well;  for  every  stately  ocean  liner 
that  clears  our  portts  land  siails  down  over 
the  edge  of  the  world  with  the  "union"  at 
her  flagstaff,  carries  on  board,  a  bar  of 
uinchanted  sihoals  and  sunken  reeifs,  for 
sofnie  of  the  voyagers,  aod  many  a  gallant 
life  goes  dbwn  at  sea  inside  'the  ship  aind 
wfliile  the  watch  is  calling  at  every  bell: 
All's  well!  airs  weJll!  all's  well! 

London  fog  was  never  demser  than  the 
popular  mlicapprehension  of  tihe  drink 
question: — not  long  ago  I  v^as  in  ooinversa- 
tion  with  a  lady  who  evidently  thought  to 
show  me  a  politeness  by  asking  abouit  the 
progress  of  what  she  called  "temperance/' 
She  spoke  as  one  migh'it  mention  a  new  or- 
chid she  haid  heard  of,  but  never  seen;  and 
b3^  her  knee  her  little  boy  was  clinging 
posy,  and  lusity  aind  fine.  "It  must  be 
dreadful  work,"  she  said,  *''buit  I  have  no 
personal  interest  in  it,  'and  so  I  do  nott 
keep  informed  about  it;  there  has  never 
been  a  drunkard  in  our  family  on  either 
«ider' 


The  Range  Finder 
118 

She  wais  a  moral  •soimnamib'uli/sit  wide- 
eyed  buit  st'O'ne  blinid,  walking  along  the 
eaves  of  Tophett  \^^iltlh  her  chdld.  I  wolie 
her,  as  iii'duity  boutiid,  by  sayinig:  "Madam* 
How  do  you  know  thiat  tihis  boy  wiill  mot  be 
a  drunkard?  My  mother  was  as  good  and 
as  beautiful  as  you  are,  <and  our  hoime  was 
far  more  beautiful  't'han  it'his  of  yours:  my 
f'ather's  blo'O'd  ran  pure  as  any  in  your  hus- 
band's famdly  or  your  ow^n,  and  they  were 
a^  liovdng  amd  as  tender  and  «as  careful  as 
yoTi  can  be;  bust  when  tihe  natural  and 
honorable  griefs  and  losses  oif  the  world 
had  beaiten  fthem  with  (many  Btripes,  but 
left  thean  family  pride  and  an  untarndshed 
name  and  'an  onily  son  wh'O'm  tiheir  united 
love  clothed  upon  as  with  a  garment  of 
imimiunity  agaiinst  deiileiment,  the  salo»on 
came  a'nd'took  all:  and  the  only  bit  of  land 
I  own  today  at  a  mid-life  of  ceased'css  labor, 
is  a  li'tltle  squa.re  of  cemeitery  hill  side 
where  they  lie  wi'th  tiheir  broken  hearts 
waiting  for  whatever  possible  joy  may  "toe 
requited  to  them  at  the  last." 

Before  I  had  finished,  her  boisom  was 
heaving  v^iith  tumult uotui^^  bre'athing,  and 
her  eyes  were  pitiful  witih  unshed  tears, 
and  snaitching  the  boy  to  her  heart,  she 
cried:  "Forgive  me!  forgive  me!  I  had  not 
thought!" 


The  Range  Finder 
JI9 

I  do  nioit  speak  of  't'hisi  to  lay  a  railinig  ac- 
cusation aig-ainst  lihie  careless-seeaning 
happy  people.  I  know  perfectly  well  the 
ignoible  servitude  of  Christian  people  to  the 
saloon  parties  is  due  to  the  lack  of 
thought,  but  tJhe  churcih  has  tho'Ugbt.  and 
sipoken  so  thait  all  earth  and  hcaiven  have 
heard,  and  you  are  thinking  now,  and  must 
Hhink.  Bear  with  me  this  once!  I  do 
no(t  expiectt  you  ^o  feel  as  I  do,  you  could 
mot,  withont  sntferinig  what  I  have  suf- 
fered, and  I  have  no  onemy,  and  nevier  had 
■one  whom  I  would  not  spare  tlhart,  if  I 
could:  I  aan  pleading  with  yon  for  the 
merest  huimanity,  such  as  you  would  show 
a  wounded  dog.  There  is  not  a  cradle 
rocking,  rocking,  in  an  American  home, 
but  close  beside  the  dr^ink  wolf  crouches, 
and  grams,  and  waits;  -there  is  mot  a  baby 
m'an  swinging  into  the  lists  of  life  in  the 
royal  chariot  of  his  mother's  arms, 
but  the  saloon  vulture  with  bloody 
beak  and  cliaws,  and  sick  of  old  carrion, 
ftaips  its  hideoms  wing^  above  thait  holdeisit 
pageiantt  of  ithe  universe,  and  soars  and 
waits. 

*  *  * 

One  of  the  .slt»rangeisit,  mosit  fo'undia(t ion- 
less  of  prevalenrt  opindoms,  is  thiait  tfhe  drink 
quesition   relates  chiefly     or     whiolly     to 


The  Range  Finder 
J20 

drunkairdis.  I  tMiik  it  m'ore  thian  probaible 
thjaJt  soime  young  woiman  aitltinig"  here  to- 
day 'is  (Sayinig*  to  herself:  "Why  does  t/his 
mlan  oomie  here  with  hi's  scars  a.nid  luigu- 
brious  wairningis?  We  are  no(t  drunikacrds 
nor  drinkers.  Let  him  go  to  Pitt  stireeJt  or 
Canal  tsitreeit,  or  Mulberry  Bend!'*  Ah, 
well,  I  only  wish  my  work  wetre  to  the 
wratcftied  only,  'but  if  we  who  occupy  this 
platform  could  have  a  flashlight  of  futurity 
"throiwn  upcn  youir  faces,  I  know  toio  well 
and  so  do  ytooi  that  I  ami  looking-,  mow,  inlto 
the  quiieit  ©yes  of  m^^ore  than  oaiie  girl  who 
does  aind  always  did  absta.in  and  w^hio  livets 
in  a  village  where  tihere  is  nio  s'al'oo-n^  but 
yat  who  in  the  bitter  days  to  co-me  will 
Btretch  her  helpless  arms  to  save  the  mlan 
sihe  wor^ips,  only  to  hea.r  him  cunse  her  to 
her  face,  with  all  his  love  and  all  his  man- 
hood swamped  in  alcohol. 
*  *  * 

I  will  not  vmisite  yoiur  time  by  further 
aiccusatiiion  of  the  aal'oion,  or  warninlg^s  for 
your  person'ail  safety,  or  other  mialtter  of 
apology  for  speiaking.  No  audieaice  of 
equal  size  ever  conveinied,  that  njeeded  such 
an  introduction  to  the  sulbject,  lesis  than 
this  one  neiedls  it. 

Let  'the  indicitm'ent  close !  I  owe  mo  m^aia 
or  woimjan  any  syllable  of  arguflnent  or  amy 


The  Range  Finder 
J2J 

111011116111)  of  deJiay  before  I  move  foa* 
judgment,  on  the  current  and  admitted 
f a^otis  of  eveiry  day :  for  every  reiaision  tftiat  a 
cbild  oughit  to  be  haippy;  for  every  rea- 
son 'tlha)t  a  w'omian  oughit  to  be  purer  for 
every  reaison  thait  a  man  ouight  to  be 
n)0'ble;  fofr  every  reasson  tbait  the  church 
ougjhit  to  live  an  hour;  the  liquor  traffic 
ought  to  die!  It  muisit  die!  It  will  die! 
Who  w^ill  kill  it?  Yon,  aod  sucli  as  yooi,  vdll 
kill  it.  When?  W^henever  one  million  of 
Christian  mien  respect  themselves  enough 
to  quit  the  two  great  political  parties  by 
which  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  be- 
ing. 

I  do  not  urge  upon  you  any  claims  of  the 
party  which  I  belong  to.  A  new  one 
may  suit  you  better,  it  will  suit  me  quite 
as  well,  provided  only  that  it  builds  on 
God.  "Jesus  Christ  Himself  being  the 
dhief  coimer  srttonje." 

Of  dourse,  I  undeinstand  thia<t  he  who 
would  drop  (hdis  words  inito  the  ddi^h  waiter 
of  conforanaty  and  miake  no  bubbleis,  mast 
speak  -smooth  tftikigs,  and  cold,  bait  I  am 
speakiiKg  not  to  conformity,  but  to  con- 
scieoDce  and  to  trutih,  to  briavery  and  to 
honor.  You  would  s<jorn  me  if  I  were 
offeframg  to  coddle  you,  and  I  am  not  can- 
vaeteing"  tOie  chutrich  for  smiles  or  tears.    1 


The  Range  Finder 
J22 

-wfanit  'to  finid  ou't  the  niig-litt  and  do  it,  and  so 
do  yooi,  and  if  it  'takeis  w'ouindis  to  teach 
me  AvQiiat  yoai  knoiw,  thien  in  tfhe  name  of 
Chriisitiian  frtiendisIMp,  strike!  ainid  iso  will  I 
do  to  you,  untiil  tlhe  error  dies;  land  then  in 
recitified  -and  iwiified.  bfroitherhood  we  will 
face  the  fioe  and  figftiit  i)t  to  a  finiislh. 

And  it  needs  to  be  siaid  agiain 
that  sinoe  we  work  the  people's  will 
by  pialrties,  in  this  cou-nltry,  Christian 
people  have  to  have  a  new  one.  It  will  not 
help  my  case  to  speak  much  ill  about  the 
old  ones.  They  have  done  well  in  many 
thing-s  and  would  again,  for  there  is  none 
so  bad  but  that  the  rigfht  is  in  the  main 
convenient  to  it. 

But  Mammon  is  the  only  god  they  know. 
Let  us  prosper!  is  their  most  sacred  shib- 
boleth. "Whatsoever  things  are  true, 
whatsoever  things  are  honest,  whatso- 
ever things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things 
are  of  good  report,  if  there  be  any  virtue, 
and  if  there  be  any  praise" — forget  them, 
one  and  all,  to  save  the  party  and  to 
gather  gold! 

So  says  Mammon;  he  tempereth  the 
truth  to  the  smooth  Christian  and  is  con- 
sequently well  beloved;  but  you  would  as 
well  trust  the  saloon  to  kill  itself,  as  to 
trust  either  of  the  great  parties  to  kill 


The  Range  Finder 
J23 

it.  They  serve  Mammon;  the  saloon  serves 
tJiem;  'the  saloon  makeis  money,  and  the 
g-overnment  (takes  it  nearly  all;  t(he  ^alaon 
helps  the  great  and  cold-blooded  to  pros- 
per, and  g-rinds  the  face  of  the  weak,  ig- 
norant and  improvident  poor.  It  is 
prime  mimister  of  every  oppression,  al- 
though itself  a  slave.  Yon  vs^ould  safely 
trusit  either  of  the  "prosperity"  panties  to 
fig>ht  Spain;  I  should  not  fear  to  trust  them 
either  or  boith  to  solve  wisely,  in  the  long 
run,  the  p*roblems  of  the  currency  and  of 
the  revenue.  There  is  paitrioltiom  in  the 
old  pa.nties,  there  is  brain  and  bmsiiness 
honesty,  but  Maimm'on's  friend  will  never 
die  by  the  hands  of  Mammon's  friends.- 
But  the  saloon  musit  go!  and  '^t^his  kind 
Cometh  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting.'* 

Gold  men  must  stand  together  for 
gold!  silver  men  must  stand  together  for 
silver!  and  praying  men  mustt  stand  to- 
gether for  Grod  and  home  and  ooiuntry 
against  the  liquor  traffic. 

I  am  preferring  no  charges  against  the 
government,  or  the  parties,  or  the  officials, 
or  the  old  party  voters,  but  this  one;  that 
they  are  not  fit  to  deal  with  the  saloon 
problem.  I  have  already  said  that  as  to 
all  ordinary  matters — such  as  the  public 
defense,    the    public    health,    the    public 


The  Range  Finder 
J24 

revenue,  the  care  of  the  poor,  the  insane 
and  the  criminal,  and  so  forth,  I  believe 
sound  principles  of  government  v^ould 
eventually  w^in  out  in  their  hands.  The 
business  of  defense  has  practically  no 
corrupting  tendency,  it  appeals  to  self 
denial  and  to  gallantry  in  a  man:  the  care 
of  health  appeals  to  mercy  and  to  the 
good  side  of  selfishness;  the  charge  of  the 
afflicted  and  the  criminal  appeals  to  pity 
and  to  self-love  at  its  best.  And  the  mon- 
ey devil  so  to  speak  is  a  sane  and  normal 
devil,  capable  of  rebuke,  capable  of  reason. 
But  the  saloon  is  a  maniac,  blind  to  rea~ 
son,  deaf  to  rebuke,  insensible  to  fear,  but 
prodigious  in  cunning  and  cruelty.  So  far 
as  such  a  thing  can  be  dealt  with  upon  a 
money  basis  the  parties  have  perhaps  done 
w^ell  enough.  But  my  w^hole  thesis  is  that 
Mammon  cannot  cope  v^ith  the  saloon:  it 
cannot  be  bound;  it  cannot  be  improved; 
it  cannot  be  regulated!  There  is  no  pru- 
dence of  economics  nor  shrewdness  of 
policing,  nor  wisdom  of  jurisprudence  that 
can  stretch  up  to  the  height  of  this  en- 
deavor. History  within  your  own  knowl- 
edge verifies  that. 

Every  form  of  Mammon  treatment  is  in 
vogue  at  this  minute  in  this  country,  and 
open  to  inspection.     Cut  off  its  customers? 


The  Range  Finder 
J  25 

cries  the  man  with  a  pled-ge;  and  the  sa- 
loon itself  encourages  that.  Tax  it!  cried 
Ohio!  It  was  done.  The  saloon  howled 
and  we  were  encouraged,  but  it  paid  the 
tax  and  went  right  on  and  prospered  more 
than  formerly. 

License  it  under  strict  rules!  cried  New 
Jersey.  It  was  done.  The  saloon  howled 
and  we  were  encouraged,  but  it  paid  the 
price  and  chuckled  as  it  raked  in  the 
sweaty  nickels  of  the  poor.  Raise  the 
price!  cried  Illinois.  It  was  done.  The 
saloon  howled  and  we  were  encouraged, 
but  it  put  up  the  money  and  watered  the 
stock  and  fortified  it  with  poison  and 
kept  the  even  tenor  of  its  way,  and  the  sa- 
loon today  favors  high  license. 

Grant  local  option!  cried  Massachusetts. 
It  was  done.  The  saloon  howled  and  we 
were  encouraged,  but  the  saloon  was  not 
a  local  thing:  it  could  catch  a  boy  in  Con- 
necticut or  California  and  break  a  moth- 
er's heart  in  Massachusetts;  and  the  "dry" 
towns  were  dull  and  the  "wet"  ones  were 
lively;  drunkenness  was  not  greatly  dimin- 
ished if  at  all.  Christian  men  lost  heart; 
officers  grew  careless;  the  towns  vibrated 
back  and  forth  from  vice  to  virtue  till  they 
lost  the  thread  of  honesty  in  the  argument 
and  the  saloon  worked  its  territory  with 


The  Range  Finder 
126 

redoubled  energy,  and  from  a  sa^e  dis- 
tance  battered  down  the  d'Cfences  of  the 
forbidden  districts. 

Go  to!  I  shall  be  a  saloon  myself!  cried 
South  Carolina!  The  liquor  traffic  howled 
and  we  were  encouraged,  but  the  old  South 
state,  that  s-tarted  out  to  teach  the  world 
the  science  of  government,  wears  an  apron 
and  sells  whisky  for  a  living,  and  the  sa- 
loon, that  was  a.  slave,  is  king. 

What's  the  use  of  keeping  truth,  when 
we  can  sell  it,  and  save  the  rat- 
age  in  the  river  towns!  cried 
Iowa.  There  did  not  seem  to  be  any 
use;  a  "miulct!"  postscript  was  w^ritlten  to 
the  \pro>hibiitoTy  laiw,  and  the  welsitern  Mas- 
sachusseitts  hung  a  oard  in  the  window: 
"Brain  damaged,  for  sale,  cheap!"  and  the 
s-aloon  took  her. 

Take  the  mtatter  ou<t  of  politicis!  cried 
New  YoTk — 'and  put  it  into  tihe  baaixits  of 
the  Rerpuiblican  party!  Wed  the  brothel 
to  the  saloon,  and  then  let  virtue  have  its 
perfect  work!  and  in  this  state  the  liquor 
traffic  is  the  autocrat  of  trades. 

Practical  politics  cried:  Form  an  ant\- 
saloon  republican  movement,  and  swing 
the  great  party  of  moral  ideas  into  line 
for  sober  citizenship  and  happy  homes!  It 
was  don/e,  the  saloon  howled  and  we  were 


The  Range  Finder 
J27 

encouraged,  but  although  the  plan  waa 
called  a  "movement"  it  never  moved  again. 

Somebody  cried:  form  an  omni-partisan 
anti-saloon  league,  spot  the  whisky  men 
and  intimidate  the  legislature!  It  was 
done.  The  League  and  the  saloon  met  at 
the  capital.  Each  house  of  the  legislature 
took  an  arm  of  the  saloon  and  walked 
away,  the  governor  following — without  so 
much  as  a  glanoe  at  the  League. 

The  supreme  court  wrote  itself  down 
an  enemy  of  the  saloon  one  day,  and  the 
next  butted  its  own  brains  out  against 
the  inter-state  commerce  law  and  gave  a 
"charact'er"  to  the  saloon. 


A  half  a  century  of  this  has  passed. 
Every  effort  was  honest  from  the  Mammon 
poiin't  'of  vieiw,  but.  (the  saloon  is  a  wotrse 
plajoe  today  than  it  ever  was:  anid  drumik- 
enn^ess  Is  on  the  dnorease;  the  voiting 
dhurch  'ambleis  aiftetr  the  heanses  Cf  a  hun- 
dreki  thoiiisand  drunkards  every  year  and 
reads  ^a  hoipeJjess  buriiall  service  over  tiheim, 
ain?d  as  th^y  relturn  from  the  grave  and  see 
tlhe  body  politic  renjt,  frenzied,  miad  with 
al'dolhoQ,  twisting"  and  writlhing  in  the  dujsit : 
tihey  say,  "Lord,  wliy  eould  we  noit  casjt 
this  'ddaf,  dhiimb,  demon<ilatc  deVil  out?'*  and 


The  Range  Finder 
J28 

out  of  the  miardh  of  even/ts  rings  i)he  \^otice 
of  the  Messiah:  You  could  not  ca,st  him  oujt, 
"because  of  yoai.r  unbelief." 

Why  did  't(he  Chrisitian  voter  offer  to  ta-ke 
the  I'O'W  license  money  for  a  leave  to  ateal 
amd  lie  and  kill?  Be<^ause  he  did  nott  be- 
lieve God.  Why  did  he  after  thait  hiad 
failed  and  he  had  seen  not  only  that 
it  w^ais  fu'tiile,  but  tha/t  it  wias  w^rong  also 
agree  to  continue  the  corrupt  bargain 
for  a.n  increase  'of  the  price?  Because  he 
did  not  believe  God. 

Why  did  he  choose  far  his  helpers  to 
drive  ou(t  the  sailootn,  its  twio  slaves?  Be- 
cause he  'did  not  believe  God. 

Bear  w^ith  me!  I  speak  not  one  syllable 
in  anger,  no,  nor  in  sorrovs^,  either,  buit  in 
hope  that  v^^ill  mot  be  ddsmayed,  and  confi- 
dence that  will  not  be  put  dow^n.  We 
sha-ll  kill  the  saloon,  buit  no  party  that  for- 
gets God,  can  muster  us  into  thait  fight, 
nor  any  man  vsrho  holds  a  second  best 
right eou'snes's,  to  wear  upon  eleetion  day. 

The  clains  aire  gathering  that  will  do  it. 
The  prohibition  party  is  the  nucleus  of 
the  viotory;  a  hundred  (amid  fifty  thousland 
men,  fa/r  from  wise,  miany  of  ithem;  fiar 
from  perfeict,  the  best  of  them;  but  goinig 
straighit  laihcad,  nioit  evein  lookinjg  t<o  the 
right   or   to   the    left;    without   purse    or 


The  Range  Finder 
129 

scrip,  rwever  resting',  never  waiting'  for  re- 
in.foroean<ent,  never  g^oinig  back — ^forward, 
forever!  a^nd  i:h.e  banjneir  over  /them  is: 
*  ^volineiss  tmto  -fihe  Lord." 

"This  kind  eomelth  noft  outt  bu't  by 
prayer -and  fasit<iin|g!"  I>o  men  not  pray  in 
the  old  parties?  Oh,  yes,  unrtil  -th-e  mind  is 
sick  land  the  heiart  fail  n't.  -For  fully  fifty 
years  tihe  chu;rc(h  hiais  prayed  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  saloon — not  a  scattering" 
few,  buit  <aJl  'of  iihe  memibers  practiaally; 
not  carelesisily,  bu't  'darnesiily  amd  with 
teans.  "Wttiait  has  come  of  it?  N(Oth&n,g! 
And  our  own  child re>n  have  come  to  doubt 
'tfh<at  pr<ayer  is  anything  but  a  kind  of  a 
frill  uipioai  the  Sundiay  cloitheis  of  ouir  pro- 
fession. At  almos.t  any  'service  yooi  will 
he'ar  >thle  petition  'to  the  throne  of  heaven- 
ly grace:  Oh,  God:  smite  the  -saloan  hip 
aind  t)hfl;gh,  destroy  it  from  the  eiarth,  for 
Jesus'  <aake;  and  it  goes  right  on  gorging 
and  vonnitiimg,  amd  gorging  again  "yelars 
throug(fci  and  thtrough,"  and  nobody  is  sur- 
prised. Nobody  expected  the  praj^er  to  be 
answered;  everybody  would  have  been  as- 
tonished if  it  had  been. 

Is  God  dteaf  ?  Is  He  also  on  the  ^idte  of 
the  sailoon?  Is  He  'afraid  of  a  panic?  Am 
I  sneering  at  praying  men  in  the  old  par- 
ties?   No!     no!     I  should  hope  lit>tle  for 


The  Range  Finder 
J30 

iiiliis  world,  but  for  them,  buit  liislten:  "If 
we  regard  iniquity  in  our  hearts,  the  Lord 
Willi  'noit  heiair  us."  A-nd  I  say  to  yo-u  with 
tihe  f etar  of  G<od  BefoT'e  my  eyes,  thait  every 
old  ptatrlty  voteir  in  the  liasit  election,  con- 
doned the  ifniqudlty  of  tIhe  saloon;  'and  I 
say  to  you  thait  beitweien  that  Sitatus  ir 
citizenslhip  'aind  the  'thronie  of  God,  ftihe 
wireis  of  prayer  aire  down. 

In  this  eoiunitry  'the  liquor  traffic  is  a 
governimenit  monoipoly,  disitilleries  are 
built  om  plams,  inspected  and  laipproved  of 
by  it,  the  boioks  of  the  businetss  are  aiudited 
by  it,  th^e  worm  of  'the  sitill  drools  its  venom 
initk>'the  poissiession  of  a  governtmenit  officalaJ 
w»ho  looks  iit  up  in  the  goiverrumlenit  waire- 
houjsie  with  *a  governiment  padloick;  it  is 
g^aujg'ed  by  a  government  ganger.  If  iit 
sells  for  a  dollar  amd  t^wen'ty  cemts  a  glal- 
lon,  Itflie  ddisitiller  'takes  thirty  cemts  amd 
payis  a.lil  expenlseis — Itihe  grain,  tftie  labor,  the 
inrtereis(t,  ;and  (the  goviernimenit  tiakes  90 
cents  and  pays  nOtlMng. 

The  liquor  traffic  is  the  go vern/ment ; 
aind  the  ddstaller  works  hajrd  for  a  smiall 
percentage  of  the  profit,  every  do»llar  of 
whidh  ^represents  debasemieinlt  of  the  citii- 
zenisihip  and  a  wT^O'ng  to  a,  woman  or  a 
child.  The  as<sesisor  of  infteriial  revenrue, 
the  coMedtor,  the  gaoiiger,  the  ^tore-keex)er, 


The  Range  Finder 
I3J 

the  oonigTeBsmian,  tftie  ©ecretiary,  the  treas- 
urer, »anid  the  president  \vOio  appoi/nits  them 
all:  every  one  of  tihem  is  the  creaiture  of 
one  of  'the  old  paa*/tieis  and  he  reimeimbers 
•hi»s  Orea^t'or  all  the  d-a.ys  of  his  lif'e.  And 
if  you  belong-  in  one  or  the  otheir  of  those 
camips,  you  migbt  as  well  pray  God  to  but- 
ton your  boots,  as  to  pray  Him  to  close 

your  saloon. 

*  *  * 

O  church  of  the  livimg-  God!  Frie^nd  o-f 
humanity;  hope  of  tftie  world!  Some^thdng 
ails  your  worship!  Your  prayers  go  wild! 
Your  baftfteries  'hea^t  and  smoke  and  roair, 
bu>t  effect  notlhing.  Can  you  noNt  read 
the  meaning  of  the  cailm,  ordeo-ly,  unaf- 
frighted  ranks  of  the  enemy,  umd-er  the 
sputtering  a!ss"a>ults  of  your  disrupted  bait- 
tle  line?  Do  you  not  believe  this  Bible? 
Does  >n'oit  t'he  ap.palling  silence  of  heavem 
over  the  hell  oi  vice  that  licks  up  the  ma- 
itionial  hope  'and  truth  aind  honor,  teadh 
you  anything?  Brtave,  I  kn^ow  you  are,  at 
the  core,  and  wise,  amd  noble;  but  men 
bave  well  nig*h  ceased  to  expect  anything 
of  you.  You  have  coime  to  expect  little  of 
yourself.  On  the  eleiction  day  you  count 
with  the  soorners  of  your  Lord:  You  cail 
on  God  to  help  you  break  the  power  of 
tlbjB  saloon  amd  He  answers  ever  the  eame: 


The  Range  Finder 
J32 

^'Whiait  hiais/t  tliou  t<o  do  to  declaine  My 
statute,  or  it  bait  ttou  s,hoiu)Mst  take  My 
ooveinatnlt  into  tliy  raou/bh  seeing  ttliou  hjatt- 
es-t  instiruotdon  and  oaatat'h  My  words  be- 
hind thee.  When  thou  sa:wes»t  a  thief  then 
thon  contse-njt'edst  with  him,  aaid  hiatsit  been 
paa-itaker  with  adultere-ns.  Thotu  givesit 
thiy  moufth  to  evil  and  thy  tongue  :finaim- 
e<th  deceit;  thou  sittest  and  spaak^eisit 
aigaiimsit  thy  brother;  th'on  slander  est  thine 
o!wn  molther'is  son.  Theise  thinigs  haist  thou 
done,  and  I  kept  sile>nt.  Thou  thougihjteiSit 
that  I  was  altojgethier  such  an  one  ais  tihy- 
Belf ;  buit  I  will  reprove  thee,  and  seit  thieto 
in  order  be:Pore  thine  eyeis.  iN"ow  -conisid'er 
this  ye  that  f oTgett  God,  le«st  I  tear  you  in 
pieces,  and  there  be  none  to  deliveT. 
Who.so  offerejtih  praise,  glorifie.th  Me;  and 
to  him  tbait  'ord'ere<th  his  wa^ys  aright,  will 
I  show  the  salvaitioai  of  Grod." 

Grod  is  patdenlt,  <a.nd  the  church  is  truie 
aind  powerful  in  many  ways.  Butt  it  is 
plain  as  a  pikestaif  th;at  her  praiyeins  foT 
the  overthrow^  ol  the  sialoon,  cut  no  figure. 
Why  should  they?  When  the  mian  who 
prays  reifuses  or  negleats  to  chang'e  his 
way,  'ooe  atoon  on  Grod's  akJ count,  why 
ehoulld  that  pnayer  ca,usie  God  to  m'ove? 

"This  kind  oomieith  mot  out  buit  by  prlayeo* 
and  fasting.*'    Fasting,  here  meams  atppro- 


The  Range  Finder 
J33 

priate  action;  it  is  no  g-astric  operaition. 
Faith  is  not  fortified  by  fish.  "Prayer 
and  fasting"  is  prayer  with  conduct  to 
match;  or  in  other  words  prayer  in  dead 
earnest:  or  in  other  words  full  weight 
faith  in  God — prayer  which  seeks  not  to 
get  something  from  God  but  to  do  some- 
thing for  him. 

Think  of  the  insolence,  of  a  Christian 
citizen  voting  forbearance  and  legality  to 
the  saloon,  and  then  praying  God  to  be  his 
fag  and  get  him  prohibition!  If  you 
have  been  of  that  sort  in  your  civic  life, 
what  you  need  to  do,  is  to  go  to  your 
closet  and  shut  the  door  and  pray  God  to 
burn  out  your  fear  of  men,  your  love  of 
party  and  popularity  and  money  and  to 
fill  you  with  a  vision  of  His  own  perfect 
love  which  casteth  out  fear  and  his  own 
peace  that  passeth  understanding  and 
show  you  whait  to  do  and  where  to  go; 
and  stay  there  until  he  does  it. 
»  »  « 

Prayer  and  fasting  is  prayer  that  "set- 
tles it" — conclusive  prayer.  The  only 
reason  why  the  members  of  the  church  are 
not  together  voting  for  prohibition,  is  that 
the  great  mass  of  them  have  not  prayed 
the  subject  through,  and  settled  it,  apart 
from    outside   influences.    The   first   step 


The  Range  Finder 
J  34 

if  we  are  to  kill  the  liquor  traffic  is  to 
learn  to  pray. 

Pray  so  earnestly  that  the  demands  oi 
the  body  will  go  unheeded!  Pray  while 
the  breakfast  bell  rings!  Pray  deny- 
ing yourself  to  wife  or  child!  Pray 
while  the  rich  and  powerful  visitor  waits 
in  the  drawing  room!  Pray  when  your 
salary  is  in  jeopardy!  Pray  when  offices 
are  being  given  out  by  the  boss!  Pray 
when  flattery  is  ringing  in  your  ears! 
Pray  when  curses  mutter  all  around  you! 
Pray  until  God  and  you  are  square  on  the 
subject,  and  then  go  out  with  your  face 
shining  and  men  will  follow  you.  The  sa- 
loon will  perish  like  the  viper  that  it  is,  un- 
der the  heel  of  the  church,  whenever  and 
never  before,  she  prays  like  that. 

I  am  told  that  the  secret  of  the  wonder- 
ful gunnery  of  our  navy  lies  in  a  rather 
simple  instrument  called  a  **range  finder.*' 
Near  the  bow  of  a  high-class  battle-ship, 
a  small  telescope  is  set  up  electrically  con- 
nected with  another  just  like  it  near  the 
stern,  and  the  two  connected  with  the 
gunners'  station,  the  distance  between 
the  two  telescopes  being  precisely  meas- 
ured. Through  each  one  an  observer 
watches  the  enemy.  When  the  hostile 
ship  appears  at  the  cross  hairs  of  the  two 


The  Range  Finder 
J  35 

instruments  at  the  same  time,  the  di- 
recting mind  has  the  base  and  two  angles 
of  a  triangle,  from  which  an  instantaneous 
automatic  calculation  shows  the  disttance, 
and  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  does  the 
rest.  The  church  has  not  yet  found  the 
range  of  the  saloon.  If,  while  she  has 
her  ministry  "forward"  ait  the  telescope  of 
prayer,  her  laity  "aft"  will  train  the  tele- 
scope of  Christian  suffrage  on  the  enemy, 
and  fire  when  the  saloon  appears  at  the 
cross  hairs  of  the  prayer  and  the  ballot 
box  at  the  same  instant,  she  will  have  the 
true  protectory,  and  hell  will  enlarge  her- 
self and  swallow  the  saloon  forever. 

#  *  * 

By  every  motive  that  can  inspire  a  noble 
manhood,  I  implore  you  get  the  range. 
Up!  up!  to  the  mountain  top  and  learn  to 
pray!  Up,  to  the  mountain  top  and  wait 
until  you  get  the  transfigured  Christ  of 
God  into  your  mind  and  heart  to  stay;  and 
in  the  power  and  the  glory  of  that  vision 
down!  down!  into  the  muddy  pool  of  pol- 
itics, yourself  a  Christ  man,  to  cast  out 
this  political  epilepsy  by  prayer  and  vot- 
ing. 

*  »  * 

Now,  I  have  fini'shed.  I  fear  I  have  been 
frightfully   inadequajte    to    this    siplendid 


The  Range  Finder 
136 

oppcr^tunity,  but  I  am  doaie:  If  I  Imve 
saiid  ia  hianslh  thing*,  I  lam  sorry.  If  I  luave 
gione  wide  of  reiaison,  I  pray  to  find  omt  'tiie 
truth.  Wihe;t<b;er  we  ever  me'eit  ag»ain  in 
tthe  relaitioai  thalt  we  hold  today,  mjaftters 
little  to  ei'th.er  of  us.  I  shall  always  thkik 
of  you  a)s  the  Hoibsloai  party  of  the  f oirce  of 
Jesus  the  King.  I  believe  you  will  run  the 
United  Presibyteiriiian  Church  uinder  the 
g'uns  of  tlh-e  Kepubllcan  "Morro,"  amd  the 
Deanocrtaitac  "Socapa,"  and  sink  her  for 
Jesus'  slake,  in  the  neck  of  Amieirican  poli- 
tiics.  The  other  churches  will  keejp  tihe 
blockade  .gx)(od,  while  tflieir  young-  people 
invest  the  citadel  of  the  bottle,  atnjd  we 
sihall  hia«ul  dowm  the  jiauTidiced  ra.g  of  bos- 
sisim.  aed  piartyisna,  a.nd  run  up  the  Old 
Glory  of  the  Cross  of  Ohrisit  to  fl'oa<t  for- 
ever. 

^iic  viotory  is  coanLng-!  It  is  close  ait 
h'aiiti;  and  <as  for  mc,  I  ^hall  be  perfccttly 
conteaift  in  the  day  of  it,  to  find  that  my 
part  was  not  held  worthy  of  m'entiion  in 
t«he  di'sjpatches. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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otL  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

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